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16

Development News / Version 3.82 released

« on: October 09, 2023, 07:45:11 PM »

We're happy to announce a new version release.

Version 3.82 is now released on Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

This version brings you a whole new fishing method, bunch of fish life improvements and a basket of crucial bugfixes.
Find the changelog below.

Version 3.82 changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: retrievable broken off arrowheads

Occasionally arrows do break upon hitting a target, and now the arrowheads can be also occasionally, but not always, retrieved and re-used. Only the arrows of decent or higher quality will loose the arrowheads in retrievable condition and the arrowhead itself almost always suffers from the quality degrade.
If the arrow breaks from hitting a non-living target you will find the arrowhead on the ground together with the broken arrow item. If the arrow breaks upon hitting a living target the broken arrow part will drop on the ground and the arrowhead gets stuck into target's body. These stuck arrowheads are not visible to the player character when looking at NPCs/creatures, but can be found and retrieved only from the target's dead carcass.

- added: lippo fishing, a new fishing method[/b]

Lippo is a kind of a dip net with a long pole used for catching fish from rivers and shallow waters. Lippo fishing is foremostly practised only at certain times of the year; when the fish to be caught are migrating upstream to their spawning locations, and during the active spawning period.
Fishing with a lippo in the rivers and rapids is done by standing on rocks in the river. The location is often suitable when there are several rocks around as these are the usual places where both resting and spawning river fish are around and can be caught. Additionally, a lippo can also be used from the shore if the spawning fish are noticed by the shoreline. The lippo is lowered into the water, down to the bottom, and carefully dragged around in order to catch resting or spawning fish into its hoop.
Start using your lippo either by [a]pplying the lippo from the inventory or using the FISHING skill.

- added: LIPPO encyclopedia (F1) entry

- added: craftable lippo

You can craft a lippo from [M]ake menu under [F]ishing category. A lippo is constructed in such a way that it has a wooden hoop into which multiple small birch saplings are tied to. These saplings are tied together at their open ends, so that they form a net like construction around the hoop. The hoop with this net is then fixed to a long wooden pole.
The applicable character skill for crafting a lippo is NETMAKING.

- added: spawning periods for the relevant fish species

The following fish now have their unique spawning periods; pike, bream, salmon and lavaret. During the spawning period the fish gather up at their species specific spawning locations. This can be then taken advantage of by spearfishing or using newly featured lippo fishing.

- added: splashing and water ripples from the fish activity

As the fish spawn in shallow waters they do splash in noticeable way, and there are now splashing sounds to be heard and round water ripples to be seen indicating the fish activity. These are essential cues in order to find the actual fish spawning locations.
There's splashing audio to be heard but you are also notified with a game message. For example "You hear a splash from the east." or "You notice a lavaret splashing in the water." And then there are modestly animated water ripples, a new visual effect that can be noticed in the water where the fish activity has taken place.

- added: encyclopedia (F1) entries for PIKE, BREAM, SALMON and LAVARET

You'll find information for example about their spawning periods and habitats, and the related fishing means.

- improved: spearfishing

It still remains possible to catch lone roaming fish with luck and patience, but now the spearfishing can be considered most effective for catching the spawning fish.
Upon spearfishing you will be now notified about the ongoing fish spawning periods. The messages will tell if the chosen location might be good considering the spawning fish, or if the spawning might be going on elsewhere. These are hints to consider in order to find a good spot, but you are naturally free to try out your spearfishing luck also regardless of the spawning periods and locations.
There are also some changes in the spearfishing messages thorough the process.

- changed: rain visual effect slightly softened with randomized alpha blending

- added: ROUNDSHIELD encyclopedia (F1) entry

- updated: FISHING ROD encyclopedia (F1) entry with a bit of baiting information

- fixed: not being able to use withes as tying equipment when crafting skis

- fixed: encyclopedia tooltips in the inventory not displayed for items with additional item part descriptions

Tooltips were missing for items such as "Hunting bow with no string" or "Fishing rod with iron hook". Now the base items (ie. "Hunting bow" and "Fishing rod") are properly parsed in these cases too and the tooltips displayed accordingly.

- fixed: Old Man's Punt quest dialogue confusions

The quest progression dialogue had gotten tangled with blacksmith related dialogue.

- fixed: NPC archers could shoot arrows from beyond player character's visible range

- fixed: NPC archers could use and shoot back the arrows that had originally hit them

- fixed: blacksmith product price estimation oddities

Quest rewards were discounted from the final blacksmith product prices, but the blacksmiths didn't bring this up in their dialogue which caused confusion and wrong estimations. This was most notable when quest reward would compensate for the whole price and resulted in blacksmith trade preference being blanked (ie. "..give me your .")
Now blacksmiths will speak about how much the possible reward compensates, and give items truly for free with applicable rewards.
Blacksmiths might also have given wrong price estimation for batch of product because of not calculating the number of finished items properly.

- fixed: blacksmiths failing to produce ordered items

Blacksmiths often failed to produce ordered items because of carrying too much load. This prevented the ordered items to be added in their inventory. Blacksmiths kept building up the excess load because the items they got as a payment weren't never removed and restocked from their inventory. Now blacksmiths will restock their inventory before attempting to carry the finished ordered item.

- fixed: usage of TEXTILECRAFT from the skills window or via hotkey not working for migrated characters

- fixed: TEXTILECRAFT skill not improving for migrated characters

- fixed: Chat command causing fade to black after being forcefully woken up by an NPC


Cheers!

17

Development News / Splashes and ripples - visual fish activity indicators

« on: September 19, 2023, 07:20:14 PM »

The fish spawning cycles are in action and pikes, breams, salmons and lavarets now gather at their species specific spawning locations at their specific times of the year.
As the fish spawn in shallow waters they do splash in noticeable way, so we just had to also add splashing sounds to be heard and round water ripples to be seen.
These are completely new indicators of fish activity and quite essential in order to find the fish spawning locations.
The water ripples have other uses too as they can be added to indicate diving of aquatic birds or seals, or added as simple eye candy when you throw something into the water.
But first things first... we're now testing and making last adjustments to the new fishing stuff, then fix a few fistfuls of most critical bugs, and then wrap up the new version for a release.

Here's a few screenshots of the newly added splashes and ripples:

Isto hears a splash from the west. It's pike and bream spawning season, and the shallow vegetation rich shore looks just the right kind for that.
Could it be the spawning fish? All the evidence, and even the Kuikka, seems to be pointing that way.


More splashing and now Isto notices it's the fish. Now if you look two tiles north from the character you'll see round water ripples.
In the game these come with a modest little animation. Easier to notice, prettier to witness. Now Isto will know at where he should try spearfishing - or maybe using a lippo.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.81.

18

Development News / Spearfishing, spawning fish, and the lippo

« on: August 31, 2023, 05:26:26 PM »

Here we go with a brief development news about what's bubbling under at the moment.
Well, a good bunch fishing related additions, we can tell you.
There will be improvements to some old fishing methods and a completely new form of fishing to be featured.
And to have it all done with our desired ambition we'll also feature spawning periods and habitats for the different species of fish.
And these can be then taken advantage of with the old and new fishing forms.
It's quite a sidetracking, snowballing bunch of additions, but slowly coming together so nicely that we can briefly highlight it already.

Now pikes, breams, salmons, trouts and lavarets (at least) will be given their spawning periods and habitats.
Gathering of the spawning fish can be then taken advantage of with suitable fishing means.
For example pikes will come to spawn in early spring at shallow shoreline waters with rich vegetation.
During that time the spearfishing from the shore can be quite succesful.
As we know, spearfishing is already an existing fishing method in the game, but now it will become a bit more detailed for example
with information given related to ongoing spawning periods and the chosen location.


Ingir proceeds with spearfishing and the game notifies about the chosen location being good considering the ongoing pike spawning period.

Lippo is a certain kind of dip net with a very long handle, and it was used in special kind of fishing at rivers and rapids. It is a new fishing tool in the game that
can be crafted by the player character, and it will be used in this newly featured form of fishing.


Ingir has arrived at the rapids with an intention to craft herself a lippo.

Lippo fishing was practised especially when the certain fish, salmons or lavarets for example, gathered at the rivers to spawn.
But lippo can be also used to catch roaming river fish outside their spawning period too. In this fishing method the lippo is casted into the water,
down at the bottom of the river, and then moved carefully in order to scoop the fish into its net. The roaming fish in the rivers and rapids will occasionally
rest beside the rocks and skerries and these are the locations where lippo needs to be used.


Ingir needed to row with a punt to reach a skerry in the rapids. Maybe there are fish resting behind the neighbouring rocks, she thinks and reaches out to pick up the lippo.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.81.

19

Development News / Version 3.81 released for OS X and Linux

« on: August 03, 2023, 06:57:14 PM »

Version 3.81 is now released and live for all the supported platforms; Windows, OS X and Linux.
It's available on Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

For highlights and changelog refer to slightly earlier Windows version release post:
https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=7080.0

20

Development News / Version 3.81 released for Windows

« on: July 31, 2023, 01:19:14 PM »

In the midst of summer schedule challenges we're hereby releasing version 3.81 first for Windows  and follow with Linux and OS X builds in early august.
Version 3.81 for Windows is available on Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

This version is mostly about craftable and repairable fishing nets, preliminary introduction of pausable crafting and some bugfixes. Find full changelog at the end of this post, and now let's highlight the most exciting addition...

Craftable and repairable fishing nets

Now it's possible to both craft a net from the scratch, and to repair worn-out nets. These are both pausable tasks allowing you to finish them in parts as you please. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.



        Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.



         Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. For the history and realism sake a good use of written sources along with actually interviewing old net makers were carried out to come up with the many values and mechanics. And still there's a room to add some advanced fishing net care and maintenance features in the future.  It might be interesting for some if we opened up our research and field studies later on, but here's just one curiosity:

There's a tool called netting needle which has been essential in netmaking. It's a tool the player characters can craft in the game as well. In our interviews with a certain old net maker one question was: "We're the nets ever made by hand alone, without a netting needle, and is it even viable?"

    Ville, a real person in real world - an old fisherman - just kept staring for a really, really long time and said "Everyone had their own netting needle."  Other interviewees also confirmed that netting needles were always needed, even when repairing the nets, and during the fishing season people would carry them around just in case. Well, the game mechanics allow netmaking without a netting needle too, but you will only find it impractically slow.


Netting needle.


Changelog

Version 3.81 for Windows
 
** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: craftable fishing net

         It is now possible to make a fishing net by the player character. The option can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu.
         Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.
         Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. In the game making a net is newly featured pausable task allowing you to finish it in parts as you please.
     
- added: NETMAKING skill

         Netmaking is a skill for weaving and constructing fishing nets. Success in netmaking determines the quality of the nets crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.

- added: pausable crafting

         In this version we are introducing pausable crafting for a few selected items. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.
         
         Crafts that can be currently paused are:

         * Net

         * Chop felled tree into blocks

         * Split firewood from a block

         * Split a trunk into boards
     
           With the pausable timbercraft options you can now also use unhandy and inferior tools eg. stone-axe in board making as there's no upper limit of how much time can be used to get the work done.

         Pausable crafting works similarly to pausable building. You can cancel the process at will, and then continue at will. The crafting will be continued when you try to make the said item again standing beside the partially finished item. For example, if you try to [M]ake a fishing net beside a partially crafted net the crafting continues.
         Partially crafted items will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: different tile graphics for a set net

         Tile graphics for a set fishing net is now different resembling its float line on top of the water.

- updated: "Net" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- changed: the weight and price of the net item

         Both have been increased. The weight because of the rock weights taken into account, and the price because of the true workload.

- added: netting needle, a new item

         Netting needle is a wooden tool used to weave fishing nets. It can be crafted by the player character from [M]ake menu "Fishing" category. Netting needle allows weaving the net conveniently with proper knots and tight mesh of uniform size.

- added: repair worn-out nets

          The option to "Repair worn-out net" can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu. Repairing a net is also pausable task and can be cancelled and continued at will. To continue paused net repair works the same as continuing paused net crafting; if you use the repair option again beside the partially repaired net the crafting will continue.

- added: harvesting pine bark

         Pine bark can be harvested from big pine trees all-year round. Pine bark chunks are used used in making of net floats.

- added: "Bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: ball of birch-bark strip as village resource

         Villagers now gather and stock balls of birch-bark strip. These can be then traded for by the player characters if need be. Birch-bark availability in villages is based on the culture, and it naturally gets restocked only when the birch-bark harvesting season is on.

- updated: "Birch-bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: timbercraft product quantities affected by the used tool, ie. an axe

         When making boards, blocks of wood or firewood you'll get fewer products when using an unhandy axe for the said tasks. The effect is most notable when the axe is far from preferred one, eg. making boards with a stone-axe.

- adjusted: blacksmiths titled as masters always produce masterwork goods

         There was a small skill range where blacksmiths titled as masters produced fine, but not masterwork goods. This has been adjusted so that now masters always produce masterwork goods.

- fixed: using STEALTH from skills menu prompted nothing

         Now it says the skill is automatically used when necessary. That is, when your character gets [h]iding.

- fixed: firemaking failing at fertilized locations

         Fire data couldn't be properly set to locations with fertilization data.

- fixed: some diy/biy descriptions corrupting the material requirement text output

         Adding descriptive texts eg. '+(needed for this and that)' to some diy/biy entries caused text output corruption in the displayed list of required materials. This was noticed with some cordage at least.

- fixed: math failures when using withes (on the ground) in constructions

         There was a rare occasion where using withes on the ground might cause math failures to the number of materials used or required. This was noticed with building a fence gate, but might have occurred elsewhere too.

- fixed: animals leaving droppings far too often after 255 game days

         Yep, it was char<>int kind of mistake in the dropping interval calculations.

- fixed: some encumbrance penalty calculations

         Excess penalty didn't always capped at 100%, and the weight of worn clothes you could carry without penalty wasn't always calculated correctly.

- fixed: making stone arrowheads not allowing using stones on the ground for grinding

 - fixed: wading mode text alignment not centered

 - fixed: repeat the last action display for arrow and bowstring was blank



Cheers!

21

Development News / Craftable fishing nets and more

« on: June 13, 2023, 07:44:36 PM »

The current version 3.80 is now few weeks fresh and working smoothly.
And we've been working on a new update for this summer.
So how about just a little update about the little something upcoming?
Very well. And let's do it with a sneak preview screenshots.

So, what is to be highlighted now and to be featured in the next release is ...

Fishing nets craftable by the player characte

Player characters will be able to make fishing nets.
Thinking of the mere amount of yarn alone it's not all too simple craft to collect the material for.
You'll also need rocks for the weights, and birch-bark to wrap the weights with and to make floats.
And then there is also a special tool required ...



Netting needle. That's the tool you'll need. It's a wooden tool for weaving the net with proper knots. As a curiosity for history enthusiasts, one of the oldest known fishing nets in the world, the Antrea Net dated to 8540 BCE, was laced with knots that indicate use of netting needle. The same kind of fishing net knots have been used by Baltic Finns in much, much later dates. UnReal World takes place around 800-1200 CE.



Netting needle.



Net weight - a decent size rock wrapped in birch-bark.

Introducing pausable crafting

In the next screenshot our character has started weaving the net.
And after 6 hours of work the progress bar hasn't even reached the tenth of the remaining time...



Now what's that about?
Well, that means in the next version we'll be also introducing pausable crafting for making a net - and for few other tasks. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have a break in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been tested properly it will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting. Which will make quite a difference, you'll see.

So making a net won't be a task of few hours, or even few days, but can easily last for a week or more.
After four or five days of weaving the net our character takes a look at the half-finished work in progress...



Luckily for us all, the upcoming version is already more than half-finished by now.
July 2023 seems like good month for yet another release.

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.80.[/i}]

22

Development News / Ancient Savo - public beta released

« on: June 09, 2023, 06:36:16 PM »

You know, there is Enormous Elk - an indie production team founded by Sami Maaranen (UnReal World creator) and Erkka Lehmus (UnReal World co-designer).
Then, there is UnReal World - by Enormous Elk.
And now there is also Ancient Savo by Enormous Elk, as Erkka's side-project game has reached its public beta release.

Ancient Savo

Ancient Savo is an open-ended resource-management game, with no combat elements.
Cold, hunger and accidents are your only enemy.
Both 2D and 3D graphics, you can freely switch between them.

Play as a settler family in 1200CE Eastern Finland, in a region called Savo.
Build your home in pristine woodlands.
Live off the land, raise a family, send your adult offspring to start homesteads of their own.

Ancient Savo is released and available here at Itch.Io:
https://enormous-elk.itch.io/ancient-savo

See the beta version trailer here:
https://youtu.be/1m18A9_RKsw

Ancient Savo draws a good deal of inspiration from the same pool as UnReal World - the roots, cultural history and ways of life of the ancient Finns.
It is a different game independently continuing on its own path - as does the UnReal World.
However, familiriaties, similarities and overlapping ideas within these two may supplement
one's gaming experience in these two titles.

23

Development News / Version 3.80 released

« on: May 22, 2023, 08:03:52 PM »

Version 3.80 has reached stable stage and is now released on Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

Those who were playing the beta version will discover new features with the improved arrowmaking and spotting blacksmith orders on the map of known areas (F6).
For those who only now enter the version 3.80 it should be noted that the most fundamental addition in this version is featuring the NPC blacksmiths and the process of ordering metalworks from them.

Let's take a look at the changelogs - starting with a few screenshots to highlight the latest additions since the beta.







Version: 3.80 changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

The latest additions since the 3.80 beta:


- added: pending blacksmith orders shown on the map (F6)

When viewing the map of known areas (F6) villages with pending blacksmith orders are now marked with a white circle. Clicking the location will also show the pending order briefing along with the general village information.
For example:
"Sartolais village at Darkwoods.
Blacksmith order, shovel, placed 5 days ago."
And when the order has been claimed the markers will get removed. You still need to decide by yourself when to go claim the order as it's not told when it's ready, but only when the order was placed.

- added: ARROWS category to [M]ake menu

This category contains the arrowmaking related handcraft options. These options were previously under WEAPONS category. There are also several new options related to the arrowmaking improvements. These are explained below.

- improved: arrowmaking with new arrow parts

Arrows are now assembled from separate arrow parts which you need obtain or craft beforehand. The new arrow parts and improved arrowmaking procedure goes as follows:

* arrow shafts

Arrow shaft is a new item. Arrow shafts need to be crafted separately, after which they can be used in arrowmaking. Now the arrow shafts need to be made of either leaf tree saplings or wood slats, which is a new lumber item explained later on. Straightness of the shaft is very important in order to make fine arrows so the quality of the finished shaft matters a lot in the arrowmaking.

* arrowheads

Arrowheads are now unique items and need to be obtained or crafted separately, after which they can be used in arrowmaking.
There are two new iron arrowhead items called "broadhead" and "arrowhead". These can be obtained from the village blacksmiths.
There are also new "stone arrowhead" and "bone arrowhead" items which can be crafted by the player character.

* arrowmaking

As mentioned before, arrowmaking options can be found under "Arrows" category in the [M]ake menu. When you want to craft a tipped arrow there is only one generic "Arrow" option for that. This single option is used to craft an arrow with any type of arrowhead, except the blunt arrow. The arrowheads to use is selected first and this determines the following requirements and if the outcome is (a regular) arrow, broadhead arrow, stone tipped arrow or bone tipped arrow.
There are naturally also options for crafting the arrow shafts and arrowheads. And those are what you should go for first, and then assemble the arrow from the parts you've gotten.
There are also new game encylopedia (F1) entries for the new arrow parts; arrow shaft, broadhead and arrowhead.

* blunt arrow crafting requirements

In addition to new features there are also changes to old arrowmaking options, such as making a blunt arrow. Blunt arrows are now crafted from a slender tree trunk. One trunk is enough for several arrows, if you want to craft a batch of them at once. Moreover, blunt arrows don't need feathers anymore and thus become the simplest arrows to craft. Historically there's been both kind of blunt arrows, with and without feathers, but with enough challenge brought in with the new arrow parts we've now chosen them to be featherless. Blunt arrow graphics and game encyclopedia (F1) entry has been updated accordingly.

- added: wood slat, a new lumber item

Slat is a narrow flat piece of wood split from a board. As mentioned above, slats are used as raw material for making arrow shafts. Slats can be crafted via "Lumber" category in the [M]ake menu.

- added: arrowhead and broadhead as new blacksmith products

As briefly mentioned above these two types of iron arrowheads can be now obtained from the blacksmiths. All the blacksmiths everywhere can make arrowheads.

- fixed: entering fortified village from the west located the character on the wall

- fixed: NPCs might build a fire on prepared soil

- fixed: game freezes with the sequence disabling background music and quitting

The additions featured already 3.80 beta release:

- added: blacksmith NPCs and ordering metalworks from them

Blacksmith is a new NPC type who you can meet in the villages. Blacksmiths can produce different kind of metalworks on demand. This is a fundamental addition which will make a big difference to obtaining iron tools and weapons.
Blacksmith products are culturally dependent and can range from fishhooks to swords. There's also variety among the levels of blacksmith expertise. All the blacksmiths can produce the basic tools needed for the every day life of their local culture, but only the few talented ones can forge more demanding items, like a sword.

* All the cultures do have blacksmiths, but their areal availability varies. Not every village has a blacksmith, but in general there are several within each cultural area.

* You can ask villagers if there's a blacksmith around. The option for this is found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode. If their blacksmith is a highly skilled one villagers are proud to let you know that right away.

* Ordering something from a blacksmith is initiated by talking to them. Ordering options become available upon greeting a blacksmith, or can be found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode.

* Blacksmiths vary in their expertise, but all of them can produce at least decent quality items. The more talented blacksmiths can produce fine or even masterwork items. They will let you know the level of their expertise and outcome of their goods loud and clear.

* Not all the blacksmiths will produce the same items, and the cultural variety makes the most difference there. Also, only the few most talented blacksmiths will be able to forge the most demanding items, such as swords, helmets or specialized knives such as Kaumolais knife or Skramasaksi.

* It should be clear already that metal armours are not really known or used by the local cultures, so blacksmiths do not produce those - except for helmets. So the availability of NPC blacksmiths doesn't change the fact that metal armours do remain as rare imported goods, as they should be.

* Of the swords, a few talented blacksmiths may produce broadswords and shortswords but the other types of swords found in the game are of foreign origin and remain to be rarely found as imported goods. The northern peoples aren't familiar with swords at all, so to find a sword forging blacksmith one has to seek among the wealthy western cultures, or at Kaumo and Reemi.

* You can order one item at a time, which will be payed for after it's ready. Upon confirming your order you can ask what the blacksmith would like as a payment from your current inventory, but you don't have to have enough goods for the payment yet upon placing an order. When the order is then being bartered for, even if you wouldn't have enough goods at first you can cancel the trade and come back to try again with more wealth.

* Meanwhile your order is being made you can ask the blacksmith how is it coming along. They will give you an estimation about the remaining production time. Depending on the item the production times vary from few days to a month.

* If you don't come claim your order within half a year it will be given away. This may naturally lower your reputation among the blacksmith, and the village.

- added: BLACKSMITH game encyclopedia (F1) entry

Village blacksmiths and ordering their goods described in short.

- updated: culture and weapon related game encyclopedia (F1) entries

All the culture descriptions have been updated with relevant blacksmithing information and assorted corrections. Certain sword and axe descriptions have been updated to emphasize that those are foreign weapons not known by the local cultures.

- added: villagers can tell about sages and blacksmiths in the neighbouring villages

Upon asking villagers if there's a sage or blacksmith around, and if there is not, they will now let you if there's one in the vicinity or neighbouring villages. You will then be given directions how to reach the village in question.

- added: animal droppings

Certain animals now leave visible droppings, i.e. feces, that can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in map level. The droppings aren't featured for all the animals, but for those whose droppings are commonly noticeable and relevant. For example the following wild animals can leave droppings: hare, fox, badger, lynx, wolf, reindeer, elk and bear. The domestic animals such as sheep, cows and pigs also leave droppings.
The droppings of different species look a bit different, and upon looking at the droppings with game commands you will be told which animal's droppings it is.
For example: "You see here an elk droppings."
If the droppings are somewhat recent, less than a day old or so, you will be also be told that it's fresh droppings in question. Even if you wouldn't be able to specify their age the droppings work as an indicator of the animal presence at the area. The droppings may remain visible for weeks, but will eventually disappear.

- added: using animal droppings as fertilizer

Using animal droppings as fertilizer isn't necessary, but it's possible - if you feel like it. You can either spread droppings on the ground before preparing the soil and planting your crops, or spread them around after the planting. In the former method the droppings are then mixed in the soil upon preparing it, which is better.
The fertilizing effect is simplified and any amount of droppings will help a little. You don't have to fertilize every tile of the field, but just quite casually spread the droppings here and there.
This extra fertilizing helps plants to sprout and grow more succesfully, so somewhat higher yields can be expected from the fields fertilized with droppings. The effect isn't too dramatic though, since the slash-and-burn agriculture in use already includes fertilization with the ash from the burned woods.
When collecting droppings they appear under a new "Miscellanous" item category in character's inventory.

- added: SMOKING and FIREPLACE game encyclopedia (F1) entries

These will explain the smoking and fireplace heating up processes. In the cookery menu SMOKING encyclopedia entry dialog is shown at Smoking option.

- fixed: getting "carry too much" pick up restriction even if the character's inventory wasn't really full

- fixed: possibility of de-hairing bird skins, or already de-haired skins

It was redundant, and confusing. Now the game notifies you about this being needless.

- fixed: animals and NPCs drowning in shallow waters or small puddles

The issue made NPCs occasionally drown in village wells or puddles, or the animals drown in shallow shoreline waters if they were moving about there a lot eg. when tied in place.

- fixed: quest journal sometimes showing excess NPC portraits on the latter pages

- fixed: meadsweet flowers tile missing

- text corrections: a good bunch typos and grammar corrected, some messages rephrased.

Cheers!

24

Development News / Blacksmith orders viewed on the map

« on: May 18, 2023, 05:25:13 PM »

Release of 3.80 stable is just around the corner, and some very sweet features are awaiting us there.
There are still some sweaty days ahead, but hopefully it's all wrapped up the next week.

Let this screenshot reveal one of the final touches.

25

Development News / Version 3.80 (beta) released

« on: April 24, 2023, 02:16:38 PM »

We're happy and excited to announce a beta release of UnReal World version 3.80.

Being a beta release some of the new features are still slightly under construction and there might be higher bug potential, but the essential new additions are completely playable and we haven't ran into stability issues either.
Version 3.80 (beta) is available at Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 3.80 (beta) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

BETA NOTICE: This is a beta release. There are likely bugs, things are still somewhat under construction, and some of the listed improvements will be tweaked and polished further in patches to follow.

- added: blacksmith NPCs and ordering metalworks from them

Blacksmith is a new NPC type who you can meet in the villages. Blacksmiths can produce different kind of metalworks on demand. This is a fundamental addition which will make a big difference to obtaining iron tools and weapons.
Blacksmith products are culturally dependent and can range from fishhooks to swords. There's also variety among the levels of blacksmith expertise. All the blacksmiths can produce the basic tools needed for the every day life of their local culture, but only the few talented ones can forge more demanding items, like a sword.

* All the cultures do have blacksmiths, but their areal availability varies. Not every village has a blacksmith, but in general there are several within each cultural area.

* You can ask villagers if there's a blacksmith around. The option for this is found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode. If their blacksmith is a highly skilled one villagers are proud to let you know that right away.

* Ordering something from a blacksmith is initiated by talking to them. Ordering options become available upon greeting a blacksmith, or can be found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode.

* Blacksmiths vary in their expertise, but all of them can produce at least decent quality items. The more talented blacksmiths can produce fine or even masterwork items. They will let you know the level of their expertise and outcome of their goods loud and clear.

* Not all the blacksmiths will produce the same items, and the cultural variety makes the most difference there. Also, only the few most talented blacksmiths will be able to forge the most demanding items, such as swords, helmets or specialized knives such as Kaumolais knife or Skramasaksi.

* It should be clear already that metal armours are not really known or used by the local cultures, so blacksmiths do not produce those - except for helmets. So the availability of NPC blacksmiths doesn't change the fact that metal armours do remain as rare imported goods, as they should be.

* Of the swords, a few talented blacksmiths may produce broadswords and shortswords but the other types of swords found in the game are of foreign origin and remain to be rarely found as imported goods. The northern peoples aren't familiar with swords at all, so to find a sword forging blacksmith one has to seek among the wealthy western cultures, or at Kaumo and Reemi.

* You can order one item at a time, which will be payed for after it's ready. Upon confirming your order you can ask what the blacksmith would like as a payment from your current inventory, but you don't have to have enough goods for the payment yet upon placing an order. When the order is then being bartered for, even if you wouldn't have enough goods at first you can cancel the trade and come back to try again with more wealth.

* Meanwhile your order is being made you can ask the blacksmith how is it coming along. They will give you an estimation about the remaining production time. Depending on the item the production times vary from few days to a month.

* If you don't come claim your order within half a year it will be given away. This may naturally lower your reputation among the blacksmith, and the village.

- added: BLACKSMITH game encyclopedia (F1) entry

Village blacksmiths and ordering their goods described in short.

- updated: culture and weapon related game encyclopedia (F1) entries

All the culture descriptions have been updated with relevant blacksmithing information and assorted corrections. Certain sword and axe descriptions have been updated to emphasize that those are foreign weapons not known by the local cultures.

- added: villagers can tell about sages and blacksmiths in the neighbouring villages

Upon asking villagers if there's a sage or blacksmith around, and if there is not, they will now let you if there's one in the vicinity or neighbouring villages. You will then be given directions how to reach the village in question.

- added: animal droppings

Certain animals now leave visible droppings, i.e. feces, that can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in map level. The droppings aren't featured for all the animals, but for those whose droppings are commonly noticeable and relevant. For example the following wild animals can leave droppings: hare, fox, badger, lynx, wolf, reindeer, elk and bear. The domestic animals such as sheep, cows and pigs also leave droppings.
The droppings of different species look a bit different, and upon looking at the droppings with game commands you will be told which animal's droppings it is.
For example: "You see here an elk droppings."
If the droppings are somewhat recent, less than a day old or so, you will be also be told that it's fresh droppings in question. Even if you wouldn't be able to specify their age the droppings work as an indicator of the animal presence at the area. The droppings may remain visible for weeks, but will eventually disappear.

- added: using animal droppings as fertilizer

Using animal droppings as fertilizer isn't necessary, but it's possible - if you feel like it. You can either spread droppings on the ground before preparing the soil and planting your crops, or spread them around after the planting. In the former method the droppings are then mixed in the soil upon preparing it, which is better.
The fertilizing effect is simplified and any amount of droppings will help a little. You don't have to fertilize every tile of the field, but just quite casually spread the droppings here and there.
This extra fertilizing helps plants to sprout and grow more succesfully, so somewhat higher yields can be expected from the fields fertilized with droppings. The effect isn't too dramatic though, since the slash-and-burn agriculture in use already includes fertilization with the ash from the burned woods.
When collecting droppings they appear under a new "Miscellanous" item category in character's inventory.

- added: SMOKING and FIREPLACE game encyclopedia (F1) entries

These will explain the smoking and fireplace heating up processes. In the cookery menu SMOKING encyclopedia entry dialog is shown at Smoking option.

- fixed: getting "carry too much" pick up restriction even if the character's inventory wasn't really full

- fixed: possibility of de-hairing bird skins, or already de-haired skins

It was redundant, and confusing. Now the game notifies you about this being needless.

- fixed: animals and NPCs drowning in shallow waters or small puddles

The issue made NPCs occasionally drown in village wells or puddles, or the animals drown in shallow shoreline waters if they were moving about there a lot eg. when tied in place.

- fixed: quest journal sometimes showing excess NPC portraits on the latter pages

- fixed: meadsweet flowers tile missing

- text corrections: a good bunch typos and grammar corrected, some messages rephrased.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers!

26

Development News / Any sages or a blacksmith in the neighborhood?

« on: April 22, 2023, 06:45:33 PM »

Uh oh, so I got my share of the covid which brought in over a week long hiatus to the well proceeding preparations for the upcoming release.
I'm back in business now, and after the first few sweaty days in the development chambers I'm still convinced we'll see the release of 3.80 (beta) this month.

The latest additions, finished today, are something to highlight;
If you are looking for a sage or a blacksmith in a village, and there is none, the villagers can now tell you about these possible specialists in the neighbouring villages with directions how to reach the location.
It's seemingly simple, but such a great feature. And the mechanics that we now created to make NPCs aware of their neighbouring tribesmen and tribeswomen in detail can be utilized in diverse ways in the future.





Stay tuned, the end of the month is near.

27

Development News / Sami, Erkka and master Lassi

« on: April 02, 2023, 11:54:00 AM »

Hey hey,

it's a special coding (and recreational) weekend going on together with Erkka (co-designer) at my place.
And it's no surprise that we've been working on a upcoming blacksmith code.
This kind of sessions are always very productive, and of the earlier mentioned still remaining NPC blacksmithing to-dos these two biggies are now done:
- go through the item lists and consider what items blacksmith will produce, considering their culture and expertise.
- set production times, and few other variables, for the items they produce.

We've done a lots of checks, tests, adjustments and minor additions too - and that continues.
The days have been sunny, so catching a fresh air between the coding sessions is also essential.


Erkka (co-designer) on the left, Sami (creator) on the right - thinking and wandering in the woods.

Of the newest spin-off features one to mention is that when you ask from villagers if there is a blacksmith around they will be proud to immediately mention if their blacksmith is a skilled one. Only the most skilled blacksmiths can make the most demanding items, such as a skramasaksis, kaumolais knives, swords or helmets.
Upon last night's playtesting session while looking for blacksmith at Koivula a certain villager told us about master Lassi being around.
His forging skills were indeed notable:



Stay tuned. The release with NPC blacksmiths is upon us this very month.

28

Development News / Still forging the Blacksmith NPC code

« on: March 28, 2023, 05:17:44 PM »

As announced earlier, we're working on a fundamental new addition of featuring blacksmith NPCs and possibility of ordering various iron goods from them.
Our hopes to have it all completed this month has proven slightly too optimistic, so the release will take place in April.
The good news is there's far more done, than still to be done. That is, if we manage to avoid time consuming sidetracking and spin-offing, as this is indeed an addition that can easily grow and expand with to-dos and ideas popping up here and there.

Let's continue with some dones and to-dos after a screenshot of a new NPC in town:


By now there's a solid groundwork done for the blacksmith NPCs;
- new NPCs tiles have been drawn
- blacksmith NPC generation is in effect
- blacksmith availability and their level of expertise among different cultures have been considered and in effect in the village generation
- chat options for talking about and ordering goods are set and working
- blacksmith item production works and ordered items get created
- chat options for asking about the ordered item and obtaining it when ready are working
- trading for the ordered item works

In a nutshell the process of ordering goods from a blacksmith goes like;
You talk with the blacksmith about the possible goods to order, and then confirm your choice.
Blacksmiths will give you an approximation of how long the item production will take, and you can ask about the remaining production time later on too.
When the item is ready you go to talk the blacksmith again and the trading for the item starts.

So you pay for the ordered goods when they are ready, not beforehand. This way you don't have to carry your wealth
around all the time, but can go fetch it when the time to trade for the ordered goods is at hand.
It's the usual trading system in use so you can try to offer offer whatever goods you want.
You can also ask beforehand what the blacksmith would like as a payment from your current inventory.

Time for another screenshot where some of these factors are seen in action;


Then, what still remains to be done is to;
- go through the item lists and consider what items blacksmith will produce, considering their culture and expertise.
- set production times, and few other variables, for the items they produce.
- check everything
- check everything again
- test everything
- repeat the previous
- fix, adjust and possibly rewrite something
- final adjustments
- release

Phew.... forging the forging code is a serious business, but we're getting there and it will be a blast!

Stay tuned.

29

Development News / Blacksmith NPCs and ordering their products

« on: March 03, 2023, 06:40:59 PM »

In the next version we'll be featuring blacksmith NPCs, and possibility of ordering various iron goods directly from them. You order, they'll forge, and you will then pay and obtain the item when it's ready. This will be a fundamental new addition, and although there's still lots of work to do we're hoping to have the new version out this month.

Not all the villages will have a blacksmith, but it will still be easier to find one to make you that knife, axe, sword or tool you need than to run through several storehouses in several villages in a search for a missing equipment. The available blacksmith products will vary a bit depending on the cultural areas, but all the blacksmiths can make at least the most basic and essential iron goods, tools and weapons.





These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.72.2

30

Development News / Soundtrack released on Bandcamp

« on: February 27, 2023, 02:46:12 PM »

Composed and performed by the devs themselves,
wished for by the adventurers,
the primeval musical journey into the far north is now available also on Bandcamp.

And hey, this means Enormous Elk itself is now on Bandcamp. We trust this will be not our last music release there so all you bandcamp adventurers feel free to follow us there at will.