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166

Development News / ...fails to deliver a summer release || ...enters summer vacation.

« on: July 27, 2017, 02:01:46 PM »

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You dream of a summer release.
You aim your fingers at the keyboard and code.
You fail to deliver a summer release.

You know, that's what has happened to me.
Like mentioned in earlier posts I dreamed of a summer release, and a proper long holiday afterwards.
But...we're behind the schedule with several planned goals and just can't make it.
Deadlines and summer - I should have known they don't go together.

So, hopes to come up with a new patch is thus postponed after the summer. I'll be entering summer vacation shortly, for the whole august.
This means I'll be more absent in regards to game related forums and e-mail activity.
Coding is to be continued in the autumn then, but some additional content is still to be expected sooner...

Steam Trading cards

Yeeees, the trading cards. That's what we will be releasing before I leave the development chambers. It's actually the trading cards (with emoticons, badges and all that extra) which have postponed my general working schedule more than expected. Ambitions can take time, you know, but we already love the outcome ever so much. So at least for Steam players there will be something new in UnReal World to browse during the summer.
A proper, loud and clear announcement of Trading Card release will be posted when the time is at hand.
You can still prepare yourselves, foreign and domestic card traders -- it's going to be beautiful!

Greetings from horseback

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You aim your bow at a target from the horseback and shoot.
You are doing horseback archery.

You know, and speaking of dreaming, that has also happened to me.

For as long as I've been doing primitive and traditional archer I've dreamed of one day going for horseback archery. Until this summer it's been horseback riding and archery separately, but this very year I've picked up and entered this form of archery and horsemanship I've always craved for. This is going to be a dedicated horseback archery year for me, and whether I'm on a vacation or not, we just might see the next video greetings consisting of horseback archery footage.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with these few still shots. First from the horseback, then by the tranquil summer lakes around my neighborhood.






Best wishes. We'll catch up with everything in the autumn. But I'm sure at some point I'll be tempted to post a few holiday greetings as well.

167

Development News / Random little additions...

« on: July 02, 2017, 08:09:25 PM »

Summer days are truly different. Oh how easily one can end up being carried away with all sorts of recreational activities and events. But I'm frequenting the coding chambers as well,  especially on rainy days -- and now, instead of organized update post, here's a completely random bunch of few small additions to expect in the next patch:

 - added: skinned/cut/burnt carcass coloring

        Skinned carcasses now appear in fleshy red color.
        Cut or eaten carcasses appear dark reddish, and burnt carcasses blackish depending on the cut/burn degree.
 
 - added: BUTCHER_CONFIRMATION configuration option

        If the option is enabled a confirmation prompt appears if you try to butcher a carcass before skinning it.
        This is to avoid accidentally cutting up the whole carcass and losing the skin.

        To enable the option add the following line to urw_ini.txt setup file in your installation folder:
        [BUTCHER_CONFIRMATION:YES]

 - added: SPEND_DELAY_ADD configuration option

        This option can be used to slow down all the time consuming actions if you find the game turns running too fast for your taste
        during the time spending dialog. The given value is in milliseconds adding that much more delay for each game turn.
        Good value to try slowin things down a bit would be 10 and nobody wants to go for more than 100.

        To use eg. 10 millisecond custom delay add the following line to urw_ini.txt setup file in your installation folder:
        [SPEND_DELAY_ADD:10]

 - added: winter skin/fur descriptor

        And as we know winter furs are more valuable, and it's been like that for a long time. Now there's finally
        also an indication of wintertime furs and skins within the item description.
        For example:
        "Fine winter fox fur" or "Poor winter bear-skin"

 - renewed & optimized: drawing of rain and snowfall

        Previously rain and snowfall were drawn in putpixel fashion which was a speed issue on some systems.
        Now rain and snowfall presented by tile graphics, with improved look and fast rendering.

 - added: redrawn 8 directional tiles for watercrafts

        Both punt and raft now appear bigger and prettier in completely redrawn fashion. Credits for these tiles goes to Paulo Spinola.
        Watercraft tile direction changes based on the last actually rowed direction.

168

Off-topic / PC-Gamer: Algorithm picks out Steam's best hidden gems

« on: July 01, 2017, 06:40:32 PM »

Article for those who love algorithms and hidden gems.

http://www.pcgamer.com/this-algorithm-picks-out-steams-best-hidden-gems/

...it found UnReal World as well.

169

Development News / Midsummer greetings and pictures

« on: June 22, 2017, 10:53:24 AM »

Almost equally bright days and nights go by as we're approaching the midsummer day, Juhannus, 24th.
I'm travelling from Kiesse to Kaumo (in the real world, but with unreal world region names) to welcome and celebrate the midsummer.
This post is to wish you all happy midsummer time, or best of the season, wherever you are.
And this is how the nature looked around here yesterday during the darkest hour of the night.

I'll be offline for a good few days, see you around next week,

170

Development News / Summery summary 2017

« on: June 03, 2017, 07:16:33 PM »

So, the new forums are up and running, some content popping up here and there - and all seems to be quite well at this new discussions settlement of ours. Nice!

Thought of posting a little summary about some upcoming new features, and when to expect them. This is something that's been probably originally posted at the old forums, but we'll hereby bring the completely new forum members on track as well.

So summer it is, and we've been steadily trucking towards yet another version. Once it's wrapped up it's gonna be summer holidays for me, and new features in UnReal World for you. Summer it is, despite of the current weather in Finland including little snow and sleet every now and then, chilly days and almost frosty nights. But the weather engine still isn't bugged I'm hopeful that maybe in July we could have a new release out. Like always, we're adding new features on many different fronts but let's highlight some of the probably most widely interesting here:

* Bones and antlers

Antlers and bones can be now harvested from carcassess.
They have only little usage on their own but do serve as trophies and new raw materials to be utilized via modding if you like.

* Skulls and teeth

Skulls can be now harvested from a few species of dead animals whose skulls (or teeth) have meaningful ritual or magical usage. Skulls can be furthermore applied to pick teeth from them. Bear teeth for example are well-known for their magical powers.

Screenshot: By the sacred bear memorial rite tree Panu takes a look at the sturdy bones after hanging the bear skull in place.


* New spells, more spells, spells screen overhaul

We're giving up the old ritual system for good, and now focusing on the new kind of spells and spells system first showcased in version 3.40. This means removal of some of the old spells, but also featuring more and more new spells.

Ritual screen will be known as "Spells and magic means" screen and all the new spells are listed there as well. "New spells" refers to spells featured in version 3.40, which are learned within quests and performed by following the instructions given in spell description by using the common game mechanics and actions.

Currently you can view new spell descriptions only in the quest journal, but now it all will be available within the spells screen. Whenever a new spell is learned it will also appear in this new list of spells.

Bringing the selector on a any spell in the list displays its information dialog. If necessary, a selection is then made by mouse click or enter. In addition, there are also hotkeys for quick spell selection.
In case of the new manually and mechanically performed spells the spell selection merely shows the spell description and instructions to follow in order to perform the spell.
The old spells (eg. blood-stanching incantation) are colored differently and automatically put to action upon selection.

Screenshot: The new spells screen with quite a bit of spells known. Hovering the selector over the first spell shows the description.

   
* Cubs and calves - rise of the young animals

Cubs and calves have been added for relevant wild animal species eg. elks, bears, reindeer, hares etc.
In case of large species ie. elks and bears, the young ones usually follow their mothers in the wild for a full year after the birth. So, now you may occasionally encounter an elk mother wandering together with her calf, or a bear mother followed by her cub. Mother animals may act more unexpectedly or aggressively than usual when they're still taking care of their young ones -- and that's especially true in case of bears.

Few screenshots - the adventures of fghfg among cubs and calves
Bear mother with its cub. Careful now. You don't want to position yourself in between those two.


Ooo.. isn't that sweet... not a hunting day today.


* Ant nests

   For some this is a mere curiosity, for some an absolute necessity. Anyhow, ant nests can be now found in the forest. They are needed in performing certain spells but have no other use to the player character currently.

Screenshot: It's raining - and it's ant nest!



And finally, something to highlight about upcoming Steam goodies...

UnReal World Steam Trading Cards

Trading Cards for UnReal World are coming this summer. Yet again we like to do things with deep thought, love, ambition and talent and that's why the card artwork is drawn by Finnish comic artist Tuuli Hypén. (Some of you may remember her classic "conflict in the woods" drawing based on the old title screen.)
We've cherished and talked about the card themes and plots during the spring, the creation is in progress, and below you can find a sneak preview collage consisting of drafts, sketches and semi-finished artwork.

Trading Cards are likely to be launched even before the actual next version is finished. We'll start with six cards, and most likely expand the pack in the future. Prepare yourselves, foreign and domestic card traders!




This is upcoming stuff, not yet featured in the current version 3.40

171

General Discussion / General welcome

« on: May 21, 2017, 05:20:46 PM »

Yeah, people, welcome!

Though of posting general welcome message in this section as well, and you can find a bit more detailed post at the dev.news section.

My point is that even though it's still quite empty here don't let the echo from the forum walls prevent you from posting.
Don't be shy, this is your playground, thoughts and words are welcome and we're as kind as we always have been.
Place your posts where you find them fit the best. If need be new sub-boards will be opened and posts moved accordingly.
I guess talks (and suggestions?) about forums itself can be placed for example here in the general section.

At the new forums we shall take you...

172

Development News / Hello world, hello forums

« on: May 21, 2017, 04:39:50 PM »

Look at that! We do have new UnReal World forums now. Welcome!

We'll have a completely fresh start with these forums. Old post or users won't be migrated, but you may want (and are encouraged) to copy&paste your greatest/selected posts from the old forums. Now create an account, feel like at home and carry on posting and discussion as usual.
You can still find the old forums here.

Based on the community needs forum functionalities and boards will be expanded and tweaked along the way.
SMF engine is nicely moddable and hosting the forums of our own gives us all the control -- and zero ads.

Credits for forums background image edit goes to Simon "KillerFRIEND", and credits for early forum testing goes to bunch of trusted lifetime members.

We do have lifetime membership badges and section on these forums as well, and accounts lifetimers are upgraded with delay of few days from the registration.
If you are a lifetimer and don't seem to receive your badge, you may want to notify me by e-mail.  Do that especially if register on these forums with a completely different account.

We're quite busy with many different things, so don't expect quick replies to anything these days, but we'll try to keep the forum launch as smooth and painless as possible.
Things may still a bit under construction here and there, but the boards we've got here are familiar and playable already.

Now let's get these forums started. Be nice, be polite, and have fun with the power of the brave new boards. Speak, friend, and enter.

173

General Discussion / MOVED: What do you like to cook in real life?

« on: May 10, 2017, 06:15:42 PM »

This topic has been moved to Off-topic.

http://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=19.0

174

Mod Releases / Mod releases child board

« on: April 26, 2017, 12:01:48 PM »

Created this child board for mod releases. Now the general modding discussion should be carried on in "Modding" section and this child board serves as a place to browse released mod.
You can release your mods whenever you feel like it. They don't need to be complete.
Conveniently this child board shows up clearly "pinned" on top of everything when browsing the regular modding section.

175

General Discussion / How did you discover UnReal World? -- 10 choice poll

« on: April 24, 2017, 08:24:58 PM »

Here's the good old poll reposted here at the new forums.
Let us know how you ended up into the UnReal World.
Also, feel free to reply here to tell your story.
(You may also consider to find and copy&paste your reply from the old forums poll thread.)