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Quality of Life Improvements Hey Sami!

Thank you for an incredible game! I'm about 60 hours in, and loving it. While I do have some suggestions, they're mostly on the quality-of-life side of things.

This is a bit of a grab-bag, but if any of them prove to be useful, I'm honoured!

Suggestions:

  • Have cords for smoking/drying be 'used up', the same way bark for tanning works. Otherwise, have each cord hold at most 10 food items (as opposed to the first cord holding 19).
  • When displaying inventory for selecting an item, only display items that can be selected for that task. For example, when setting a net, only display nets.
  • A 'move until interesting' command. I often find myself walking in straight lines a lot, and my pinky wears out. Being able to move in a direction until the character spots an animal, the player hits escape, or another event that would normally interrupt crafting would be superb. (Suggested hotkey: Alt-8)
  • A 'sort inventory' key. Keep the categories, but allow them all to be sorted alphabetically, by weight, by freshness, or (if fancy) by type (meats, fish, herbs, vegetables, etc).
  • Assigning hotkeys to items. Setting my bow to '1', arrows to '2', and paddle to '3' means I can type 'w1' to grab my bow, 'w2' to ready an arrow, and 'w3' when it's time to go rafting. This would be a big saver on inventory time.
  • A 'find' hotkey for inventory selection, so I can search for 'spoiled' or 'blunt' or other strings. (Suggested hotkey: '/')
  • I know already discussed elsewhere, but wear on tools would be fantastic, so this is me adding a +1 to that. Having to go travelling to find a new axe, or having my 'good knife' that's only used for skinning is something I'd relish.
  • Wear on tools depends upon quality. High quality tools wear out slower.
  • Indoor cellars
  • Ability to keep the music on the title screen (I really like the music!), but remove it from the in-game map, armour view, etc.
  • Birds (grouse, mostly) sometimes seem to fly in place. This seems odd.
  • Animals don't seem to be especially afraid of dogs. A fox snuck into my dog pen and ate their food!
  • A 'gate' item that costs more than a fence, and acts like a fence to animals, but can be moved through by humans without a climbing check.

Thanks again for a magnificent game!

~ T

March 18, 2019, 09:51:09 AM
1
Re: Zoom in/out/in/out
Quote
Anyone else, does this happen to you or can you reproduce?

About 60 hours in, on Linux, with auto-zoom to homestead enabled. I've never hit any repeated keystroke bugs, although being Linux I imagine there's different things happening at the SDL/driver level.

March 18, 2019, 10:07:18 AM
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A bear-hunting trip gone wrong... Hey everyone!

I wrote a twitter thread the other day after playing Unreal World, and thought I'd share the text of it here as well.

The text matches that on Twitter, so everything is a short paragraph to fit into the character limit. But the whole experience was a big 'wow' moment for me, and made me really appreciate just how much effort has been put into Unreal World.

Sami, thank you again for an incredible game!



I'm super fond of simulation games where the mechanics result in good stories. Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld are shining examples.

Recently, I've been playing Unreal World, a roguelike survival game that's been under active development since 1992! It's been *incredible*.
Unreal World is set in fictional Finland, during the iron age. There's hunting, fishing, building, crafting, trading... all the stuff that I love.

Our story here begins in early winter. The lakes are starting to freeze. Game is becoming more scarce...

But I'm well prepared. I've a small dwelling, a stockpile of smoked fish and elk cuts, a single pig, and my trusty hunting dog.

My character, Hawk, wrapped in furs, decides it's the perfect time to explore. Perhaps I can find a shaman to teach me ritual, or even a bear den.

I pack my spear, bow, arrows, tools, and smoked meat. Since I'll be exploring new ground, I also pack some things to trade; a selection of fine axes I've picked up, and some furs from successful hunts.

I leave my dog to keep watch at my cabin, in case predators go after the pig.

I head north, towards my ancestral homelands. After days of cross-country I begin to come across small villages, but they're digging in for the winter as well. Not much is happening there.

And then, climbing a large hill to get a better view of the land, I spot someone.

It's not often I see others in the wilderness, especially this far north as the grass is replaced by snow. They could be a trader, or even a fellow hunter. I only caught a glimpse of them through the trees in the distance.

I make my way through the woods to see.

I get closer and get a better look. It's clear they're not a trader, and looking at their gear they're not a hunter.

I've heard talk of bandits, and while I've not been spotted, I slowly and quietly make my way back out of sight... when I step on a twig.

They turn, and head straight towards me. I try to duck and weave through the trees, but I'm loaded down with trading goods, and they're not. They rapidly close.

I get told I can hand over my valuables, or they'll take them by force.

But one guy? Surely I can take one guy.

I respond with a thrust of my spear, but he dodges out of the way, and strikes at me with his axe.

I don't succeed in dodging, and the blade slices my knee, and I'm instantly down on the ground.

Then I see it's not a lone bandit, there are *three*.

I can't fight three with a knee injury, and I try to surrender, but it's too late. Two more blows fall, and then everything goes dark.

I awake, sometime later... My tools are gone, my weapons are gone, even the furs I was wearing are gone.

It's dark, and snowing...

A few of my possessions are still around. My food, a bandage, some arrows, and a fine squirrel skin they must have missed.

A wound on my leg is bleeding profusely. I bandage it up, and try to get a fire started using fallen branches. Somehow I succeed.

I take stock of my situation. A gash on my head looks bad, but doesn't seem serious... I try to stand, but my knee isn't going to take it...

I have enough strength to pull some branches off a nearby tree, and skill to fashion a crude stone knife.

Getting a fire running I eat some of my smoked meats, drink from my waterskin, and fall asleep.

I awake, cold, but alive. The bleeding seems to have stopped.

But I'm injured, in the middle of nowhere, with almost no tools, valuables, or even clothes...

My rations assumed I could hunt or trade for food, and now both of those aren't possible... Somehow my fishing rod is still okay.

Rather than crawl south, I head north, to a small lake I camped by two seasons ago.

I move slowly, having to stop for fire, food, and rest.

I make it to the lake. My food is gone, and I've been eating late season mushrooms and lingonberries I've been foraging along the way.

Water is life. I can't hunt, but I *can* fish. Dragging a small stack of firewood to the lakeside, I knock a hole in the ice, and hope...

The lake does not disappoint. After an hour I hook an enormous pike, weighing seven pounds, and a few smaller fish follow.

Despite my gnawing hunger I set one fish down as an offering of thanks to the spirits, and begin roasting the others.

In other circumstances, I would consider settling down here while I heal. The lake provides fish. The forest has mushrooms. I can build traps to catch the odd bird or hare.

But I'm in the north. I have almost no clothes. I know I won't survive the winter.

So I spend a couple of days by the lake, treating my wounds, crafting a stone axe, resting, and catching more fish than I eat.

My knee still won't support my weight, but I've stabilised. So I head off south, slowly, and harvesting any plants and mushrooms I see along the way.

After what feels like forever, I arrive at a village. I'm cold, and starving, but the villagers are good people, they give me food and shelter. A shaman applies a poultice to my wounds.

One villager asks if I'd take a message to the next village over.

I'm not sure he really looked at my injuries, but the next village is very close, and he says he'll pay five squirrel-skins of goods if I do it soon.

That's not much, but it's a fortune in my current state. I accept. Normally it'd be a few hours walk, it takes me a day.

I return, and ask for some of my reward to be more food, which I devour hungrily.

There are fires in the village, but everyone else has winter furs, and I do not. I start to fell a small tree for wood, and am promptly told that I'm not to do that in the village.

I figured I'd stay a few days to gain my strength and heal, but it seems anything I do to stay alive gains the ire of the villagers. I can't set traps. I can't light fires.

I'm told I'm no longer welcome, and asked to leave, even without the rest of my reward. I don't argue.

I continue south. Each day feels like it's nothing but harvesting wood, lighting fires, tending to my injuries, and being unable to sleep from the hunger.

I'm far from any lakes, shivering from cold, and slowly wasting away. I'm sure I'm done for.

But one day, I test my knee, and while painful, it holds my weight. I can stand enough to swing my stone axe. I can walk at a hobbling pace.

The days are dark and cold, but I think I might actually get through this.

I make it to another village, and I'm literally weak with hunger. I hand over that squirrel skin in trade for food.

I know these people don't let me light fires, but I can add firewood to their own fires. I do so, and they seem pleased.

I eat and rest. I feel hope.

The next week is rough, but I have dried food from the village, I can walk, I can harvest wood.

The land starts to look familiar.

I make it home.

My dog is still here, and delighted to see me!

I crawl into my cabin, light the fire, and collapse.

This was an *incredible* experience that had me up until 2am. I was so engrossed I lost track of time. All because Unreal World has *so much* attention to detail and game mechanics.

If you like survival roguelikes, and don't mind a learning curve, it's superb.

March 27, 2019, 12:01:14 AM
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Re: [Fixed - 3.60beta hotfix2] Disassembling deadfall trap results in extra rope Oh wow, that was super-fast, and I'm absolutely loving the new release. Thank you muchly, Sami!
September 23, 2019, 06:18:51 PM
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[Spoilers] Which bow is best? Aiming to resolve confusion around bows There's a regular debate around the bow accuracy stat on the wiki, and it left me wondering... Are shortbows really more accurate than Northern Bows? What's going on here?

So, having recently found myself with extra time on my hands thanks to the global pandemic, I fired up ghidra and spent some time decompiling UnReal World 3.62 to see what's really going on.

Decompiling code isn't exactly straightforward; one gets the instructions executed by the CPU, not the original source code, so there's a lot of piecing things together and sleuthing required. But I think I've managed to get to the bottom of this particular open question, and Sami has been extremely kind in letting me share my results.

Before I get into spoilers, I want to point out that the in-game manual on missile combat gives an accurate description that appears to be confirmed by code:

Quote from: Missile Combat
Success at firing an arrow or throwing a weapon depends on the applicable weapon skill. This is a common combat rule and missile attacks are no exception, but your performance only determines the initial quality of the shot/throw, ie. how much your aiming is off and how accurately you manage to send your missile on its course. The worse your performance the wider the cone of spread is possible, so it's not always guaranteed that a good shot/throw will result in a good strike at exact location of impact. Even a minor deviation from the intended trajectory will accumulate over distance. Any shot/throw is bound to hit better at close range, and the further the target, the more precision is required. Should your missile miss the original target or  even fly completely wild, it can still hit something else on its course - unfortunately this could be also your own dog.

Quote from: Ranged Target
A target that is being attacked by a missile weapon can't choose any conscious defense maneuver as in melee combat, but moving targets can still avoid getting hit. This defense possibility for moving targets is automated and it doesn't matter if the target is aware of the attack or not. A target is considered moving if it is actively running, flying, escaping etc. from one location to another, but also when it's making fast movements in its place like when engaged in a fight. The faster the target is moving the better chance it has to make it out of the way or to make a lucky movement in its place and unintentionally dodge the missile. This is based on the target's actual mobility and manner of moving, so if the target is slowed down due to physical penalties or for whatever reason, its chances to avoid missile attacks are lowered accordingly. Naturally, it's not only the target's speed that matters but the missile velocity as well. It's easier for any moving target to make it out of the way of low-velocity missiles, but very fast animals will be challenging to hit even with bow and arrow - and exceedingly challenging if they are both fast and small.

So straight up, the game tells you the important factors involved are:
  • Your missile skill, which determines the accuracy cone
  • Distance to target, which determines how much aiming errors can accumulate
  • Size of target, which determines what you need to hit
  • Mobility and activity of target, which determines their chance of getting out of the way
  • Missile velocity, which reduces the chance of a target dodging

None of this mentions "weapon accuracy", and Sami has confirmed in a PM to me that:

Quote from: Sami
If the bow accuracy would really be radically different between bows it surely would have been mentioned in the game information.

So I can confidently say that the accuracy figure on the wiki is extremely misleading. It does mean something, but you are almost certainly never going to encounter that in the game. Read the spoiler section below if you really want to know, and also have a little more bow mechanics revealed.

Spoiler: show


Every item in the game has an 'accuracy' figure, it's a measure of how un-aerodynamic the object itself is. Arrows and javelins have the lowest number (1), whereas plants and articles of clothing can have numbers in the hundreds. Items with lower numbers are more accurate when used as a missile. So if, in desperation, you were to throw your actual bow at an opponent, you could make a more precise throw with a Northern Bow ('accuracy' 5) than a heavy crossbow ('accuracy' 10).

To be clear, unless you are throwing the bow itself, this 'accuracy' value has no effect.

Your weapon skill, and the item quality (of both bow and arrow) all appear to contribute to tightening the cone of spread, with poor quality items making it especially hard to shoot straight. There is also a velocity calculation which is determined by the square of the bow's piercing/point stat, plus a constant (which appears to be the same for all bows). Higher powered bows (such as the longbow and Northern bow) will shoot higher velocity missiles, resulting in more damage on impact, and reducing the time a target has to get out of the way.

I presume, but have not confirmed, that higher velocity missiles also means missed shots will travel father, and are more likely to break on impact.

I have not checked to see if a bow's weight has any relevance on missile velocity. My gut feeling says it does not, but I do not have evidence to support that. Nor have I checked to see if the bows have different shooting speeds.



Many thanks again to Sami for not only an incredible game that's brought me much joy throughout the years, but also for his understanding and support when I decided to dig further into its mysteries!

~ Teellox

July 21, 2020, 04:49:27 AM
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Re: [Spoilers] Which bow is best? Aiming to resolve confusion around bows
> I have not checked to see if a bow's weight has any relevance on missile velocity. My gut feeling says it does not, but I do not have evidence to support that. Nor have I checked to see if the bows have different shooting speeds.

If you verify this, you'll be my hero forever  ;D

I was back in the decompiler earlier today, and look another glance at the missile code now that I'm more familiar with ghidra. I couldn't find anything that referenced the weight of the bow, so it's looking increasingly unlikely that it makes a difference.

This does mean that the hunting bow is the odd one out. It's not as powerful as the longbow, but it weighs the same and costs more.

Admittedly there are many layers to the combat code, so it's entirely possible hunting bows might be special-cased somewhere, but if it is I've yet to find it.

August 04, 2020, 10:01:41 AM
1
Re: [Spoilers] Which bow is best? Aiming to resolve confusion around bows
Can anyone provide more information regarding arrow speed in game?  Is it affected by character stats or just the bow type used?

As far as I can tell, it looks like it's just the bow type, projectile aerodynamics, and projectile weight.

Bow accuracy is clearly linked to character skill and item quality. I believe that character stats determine how easily it is to raise a given skill (shown with the '*'s next to the skill in question). It certainly determines skill boosts during character creation.

Quote from: Dr.Hossa
What is the difference in the performance of a juniper bow compared to a shortbow, since they have the same "impact"?

My understanding is that since the juniper bow/primitive bow uses the 'common' skill to construct, putting a limit on its quality. Whereas the short bow uses carpentry and allows for more quality materials, so you could potentially self-craft a fine or masterwork shortbow, as well as it being good for training carpentry in general.

As always, take everything with a bag of salt; while the missile code is where I've spent the most time, I can hardly say I've traced all of it.

August 16, 2020, 06:51:47 AM
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Re: Modding limitations? Hey Sloomingbla! Welcome to the forums!

In my experience with decompiling URW and modding in general, Sami has been super supportive and chill. When I did a deep-dive to find out how missile dynamics worked the other month, Sami was 100% cool with me posting my findings, which I'm very grateful for.

Quote
I wanted to know, what is it that stops people from creating their own custom creatures, cultures, in game balance and the like? Is it entirely hidden to the users, and if so what could possibly make it so hidden?

URW has a famously long development history, and is written in C/C++. The code has evolved over time, and you can see this in things like the item and recipe definitions, which can be easily modded. However many aspects of the game are still hard-coded in, with cultures and animals being part of this. Modifying those is hard, not because of any intentional efforts to make it hard, but just because that would normally be done in source code, rather than in configuration.

Being in C/C++ has an extra layer of challenge, as it doesn't decompile anywhere near as easy as, say, C#, which is what Unity games are written in. Modifying code for something like Rimworld of Kerbal Space Program is relatively straightforward, not only because the decompiler preserves most or all of the original names, but also because tools like Harmony exist to make the process easier.

Having said that, it doesn't mean that more advanced mods to URW can't be done, just that they're not going to be as straightforward as you might expect. NIght's Character Menu, for example, has identified a lot of values in the internal data structures, for example.

If you are looking at making binary edits or using code injection, do check in with Sami first. Not only is it polite, he's also genuinely lovely. :)

~ T

August 16, 2020, 08:30:34 AM
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"What are you doing?" option for followers Party members can be helpful with all sorts of things, but it's not always clear what they're doing at any particular time. Are they felling trees? Cooking meat? Making boards? All of the above?

Having a "What are you doing?" option in the command menu would be great to see what a companion's current task(s) are.

August 18, 2020, 12:32:16 PM
2