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Time flies, the autumn comes
Oh my, it's the last of september already, and there's been no news since entering the summer vacation. Let's fix that quickly now. So, for those who only read news I should announce that I did survive the summer  -- and as a more concrete evident frequent forum browsers have spotted few replies andhere and there. Mostly concerning a few squashed or mysterious bugs. At the moment, regarding the game, I seem to be very short of time for anything else than continuing the development from where it was paused before the summer vacation. And occasionally squashing the most relevant bugs with the left hand when possible. Once we get a fistful of more to-do's featued a roadmap towards the next version becomes more to clear announce verbally for you, good people. The last few weeks it's been mostly all about continuing to add a new spells and finalizing ritual system renewal. It's one of the big next version additions, and was vaguely briefed in this old forums thread. With the shortage of more words and news to give you let's just say that the autumn is coming, but so are the future features of UnReal World. Let there be code, and let there be swans.  September 2017, outside the development chambers. September 30, 2017, 12:15:25 PM |
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3.60 (stable) released on Steam, with Halloween sale & Kekri celebration
Halloween sale is on at Steam, and our own festivities also include the release of UnReal World version 3.60 (stable) there. You can grab the game for decent discount at UnReal World store page, and Lifetimers will find the release at the designated forum section. Now if you've been itching to start playing 3.60, maybe counting your coins, we're having the biggest discount so far to make it a little more affordable for You. Those who feel reluctant about playing connected Steam we remind that it's not a thing in case of UnReal World. You can be and play as offline as you want. It's Kekri, not halloween, in the Far North. Kekri is an ancient Finnish harvest festival celebrated in the fall when the annual agricultural activities were all accomplished and the harvest collected. Kekri meant the end of the crop year, which was a big turning point. It was the time when the souls and spirits of the dead wandered around and visited the living. The ancestors were respected and welcomed. Sauna was heated up for them, and meal prepared too. The living celebrated accordingly, and so do we. We have harvested and processed the bugs and to-dos since the last beta and now together with Kekri celebrations 3.60 stable is out. Kekri Goat Kekri time included tradition of Kekripukki (Kekri goat) figure. People would dress up as horned creatures, wearing furs or coats upside down, and went around in their disguises and were offered food and drink. So, what does a decent developer of tradition rich game do to follow the tradition?  Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well. You can find full 3.60 changelog here and this is what's been added since 3.60beta-hotfix3: UnReal World version 3.60 (stable) changelog: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - added: tree saplings There are now small saplings of spruce and birch trees appearing on zoomed-in maps. Saplings are not obstacles for movement like the bigger trees but you can walk right through them. Saplings can be cut down like any trees, and they have use in making of withes. MIGRATION NOTICE: Saplings can be found only on newly generated maps. If your character has explored the world extensively you may want to run map maintenance (key command [7]) which removes unimportant previously generated zoomed-in maps. - added: withe - a new type of tying equipment Withes are tying and binding equipment made from flexible, slender saplings of spruce or birch trees. Your character can make withes from [M]ake-menu under Tying equipment category. - added: WITHE game encyclopedia entry [F1] - added: fence building now requires two bands of tying equipment Fences have been traditionally tied with spruce withes, which are the preferred and convenient choice, but any other tying equipment will work as well. - added: villagers now cook their raw meat and fish Villagers will now cook raw meat and fish in their possession. This doesn't necessarily happen instantly upon obtaining the meat or fish, but at convenient moment for the villager in question. - added: inventory auto-filtered to show timber when birch-bark raw material requirement selection is being made - changed: upon planting something the sprouts are not immediately visible Only after some days you will be able to see the sprouts of what you had planted. Before the sprouts, planted tiles appear in thicker prepared soil graphics so you will be able to recognize them. - adjusted: village dogs don't bark at sleeping characters Watchdogs barking at restfully sleeping characters made it impossible to have good nights sleep in a village. - fixed: using length based items as weight based crafting material got their properties modified confusingly For example tanning with birch-bark strips. - fixed: hunting NPCs might choose to hunt player character's domestic reindeers - fixed: villagers rejecting traps in trading, claiming that they have enough even though they had none - fixed: raft weight reasoned They've been super light earlier, but now weigh around proper 1200 pounds. This makes hauling the only option for moving rafts around on dry land. - fixed: young leaves could be picked immediately when plants sprouted Now the plant needs to be few weeks old before picking of leaves is possible. - fixed: double animal skin when skinning the same carcass as your NPC companions - fixed: young animals meat yield occasionally being as high as that of the adult animals - fixed: NPC butchering/skinning processes in the background might cause player spend times to jump or reset - fixed: NPC owned dogs not leaving tracks in the wilderness - fixed: tying equipment return issues after drying/smoking If several stacks of food was dried/smoked at the same location using same kind of tying equipment all the tying equipment got returned when the first batch of food was ready. - fixed: player crafted items occasionally appearing as roasted foods (if there was NPCs cooking nearby) - fixed: when looking at tree harvested of its bark the tree info mistakenly said "partially felled" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Celebrate & Participate We wish you happy Kekri time - or happy Halloween if that suits you better. All in all, now just celebrate and participate in the festivities at this special time of the year. October 28, 2019, 06:43:34 PM |
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Version 3.63 released on Steam, Itch, and for lifetimers
Hey, a new UnReal World release is out now. Version 3.63 is now available on Steam, Itch.Io and Lifetimers will find the release at the designated forum section. The summer sale on Steam still continues for a little while, so if you're quick and willing it's possible to take that sort of a tactical advantage. With the new release the previous version (3.62) is now publicly available at downloads section. UnReal World Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/351700/UnReal_World/ UnReal World Itch.io store page: https://enormous-elk.itch.io/unreal-world This version 3.63 is kind of a summery release in itself. There's features and fixes on all fronts, but some is specifically related to the lush of the summer. You can find the full changelog below but first, here's a moody image of certain real world item which you can now find in UnReal World too. ...as I'll go now gently beat myself with this one, you can enjoy the new release -- and do the same in there at will.  Version 3.63 changelog - added: separate key command for commanding your pets and companions [!] Talking to someone and commanding your pets and companions are now separate commands. Commanding is now done with with [!] key, and the good old [C] key is used only to talk to someone in normal fashion. The game notifies you about the new [!] key command when talking to companions in normal way, or when talking to someone when there are pets out of sight. These little messages hopefully make it easier to get the new command policy memorized. Also, if you mistakenly try to [C]hat with pets the list of commands is still displayed. If there are no pets or companions around at all trying to command them [!] just displays an informative message and doesn't proceed into fruitfless target selection. Also, if there are no companions in sight the menu for shouting commands doesn't anymore contain needless "Choose a target in sight" option. - improved: fire mechanics Various features have been added to make fire burning, its' warming effect, obtained information and visual appearance more detailed. * Burnt-out fire graphics is related to the amount of fire burned at the site. Small fires leave small remains, large fires leave large remains. * Remains of fire accumulates over time so sequential fires burned at the site will increase the remains. The remains will still eventually disappear with few days pause in fire burning. * embers graphics has been added and remains of burnt-out fires will be now appear glowing red for awhile. For how long the embers will be glowing depends on the amount of fire burned. * when looking at burnt-out fire it's now also told if there are glowing or still warm embers. This information gives an idea eg. about how recent a campfire found in the wild might be. * glowing embers from nearby burnt-out fires helps you to start new ones. This is automatically checked if you start making a fire with glowing remains at adjacent tile. - added: smoking requires continuous maintaining of fire In the previous versions smoking succeeded if the room was heated once, and the process required no further maintenance. Now the heating must be maintained through the whole process. It's not critical to maintain an exact temperature but the fireplace in your smoking cabin should be warmed up properly on daily basis. Should you forget it one day it's still possible to compensate by heating it up even more the next day. If the heating is completely neglected you will find your smoked foodstuff all spoiled. If the heating has failed only to some extent you may find some of the smoked foods spoiled. - added: gradual heating up and cooling down of fireplaces and sauna stoves When warming up a fireplace or sauna stove it now takes some time before the stones get properly heated up and start releasing warmth into the room - and this process is gradual. As a rule of thumb you should keep fire burning at least 3 or 4 hours to get fireplaces and sauna stoves properly heated up. The cooling down is gradual as well and fireplaces and sauna stoves will retain warmth hours and hours after the fire has burnt out. The warmer the fireplace or sauna stove has been the slower it will also cool down. With these changes in action you can't expect to have a nicely warm room at an instant you light up a fireplace. Or you can't have a sauna bath right after lighting up a sauna stove. However, the fireplaces are designed so that they release some heat when the fire is burning. This allows you to still effectively warm up by the fireplace while it is still only getting heated up. Also, now you might notice having to warm up the fireplaces longer and more carefully than in earlier versions to have your cottage nicely warm during the coldest winter days. With gradual cooling down of fireplaces the winter morning temperatures inside your cottage may sometimes apppear surprisingly low compared to the earlier. This is because in earlier versions fireplaces retained constant and exceedingly high temperature for very long-time after the fire had burned out. - added: sauna stove tile slightly stylized It's a bit darker and has smaller mouth now. This is to better distinguish sauna stove from a common fireplace. - added: building a sauna stove Sauna stoves can be now built by the player character. You’ll find the option from [M]ake menu -> Building -> Wooden building. - improved: throwing water on the sauna stove Before it was necessary to use sauna scoop to throw water on the sauna stove. Now it's done simply by [a]pplying a water container beside the sauna stove. An option for throwing water from the container appears when the condition is met. Messages about the results are also updated and now it is told if you get mild or proper steam - depending on how hot the sauna stove is. There’s also a sound effects added so you can hear how the sauna stove really hisses. With these additions sauna scoop now becomes a deprecated item. It continues to exist in object galore, but with no real use. Upon using sauna scoop you only get a message to use new mechanics instead. - added: leaf trees now grow and lose their leaves gradually according to the season You can see leaf trees gradually getting more lush in green in the spring, and again losing the leaf cover in the late autumn. - added: vasta – a kind of broom to beat and treat oneself with during sauna bath Vasta is a kind of broom made out of leafy birch twigs and used during sauna bath to gently beat oneself in order to get the muscles relaxed, body massaged and skin cleansed. Vasta can be made by yourself from [M]ake menu under Utility articles. Making of vasta requires bunch of leafy birch twigs which can be collected from birch trees using your TIMBERCRAFT skill. To use vasta [a]pply it while taking a sauna bath. There’s also sound effect added so you can hear what the beating with vasta really sounds like. Using vasta improves the healing effects of sauna bath. There’s also game encyclopedia [F1] entry about vasta available. - added: collecting leafy birch twigs When collecting branches from birch trees (by using your TIMBERCRAFT skill) you now get leafy birch twigs if the season is right. If not, mere branches are collected. There are appropriate messages to indicate if the leaves aren't big enough just yet, or already gone old. This addition is foremostly added for making vasta which requires leafy birch twigs to be used. - added: shout commands activated when pets are too far to respond to talked commands When commanding your pet that is too far away you are now automatically given options for the possible shouted commands. Foremostly this makes "Come" always an available command for dogs. - added: wandering Njerpez can be met in small groups too Njerpez warriors don't wander all alone anymore but can be met in small groups, or pairs as well. If a conflict will arise from these encounters you have to be extra careful now. A group of wandering Njerpez can also have multiple dogs with them. - adjusted: wandering Njerpez commonness based on the region Wandering Njerpez are most commonly met in the east and south-east. That's an old rule which hasn't changed, but in the previous versions the borderline of their existence and non-existence was strict and rigid. Now the wandering Njerpez commonness is more gradual, decreasing the further into the west and north you go. Now it's been also verified that Njerpez raiders don't ever try to reach regions of western and northern cultures, so that's where to settle if you want to avoid raiders completely. - added: pause for spacebar when player character falls through ice - added: non-weapons can be thrown even when both hands are wielding something This makes it easier to bait a trap, feed a dog, toss firewood into the fire and so on as you don't have to unwield anything to be able to throw such things. - added: reindeers can be milked It's now possible to milk reindeer does. The period when the milking is possible is the same as with cows, but the yield is little lesser. - adjusted: milking period of sheep shortened with few months Sheeps now yield milk only from swidden month to harvest month. - added: character age and days played now appear in [P]rofile screen This info is displayed at top of the screen saying eg. "You are 16 winters old, and have lived 7 days of adventuring life." - removed: character [L]og screen It's been considered useless for a long-time, and it's no longer in use at all. - fixed: fresh bloodscapes sometimes disappearing instantly upon map load - fixed: throwing water on the sauna stove not increasing the temperature This had gotten broken somewhere along the way when adjusting temperature checks. Now it’s fixed and you will again notice the character getting warmer upon throwing water on the sauna stove. - fixed: no message or results of arrow breakage when it happened upon hitting a creature Now if an arrow breaks upon hitting a creature the breakage message is displayed and broken arrow will remain at the location. - fixed: companions that were commanded to stay put did still engage into fights - fixed: continuing early interrupted fence building requires the raw materials again - fixed: character not falling into the water if thin ice at the location is broken by dropped items - fixed: planted crop graphics appearing at picked mushroom location - fixed: when dropping items selecting the only item in filtered inventory category drops it immediately ignoring the other selections Cheers! July 09, 2020, 12:38:00 PM |
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Re: Suggestion reply marathon | Apr-Dec 2020
Suggestion reply marathon - Apr-Dec 2020 | part 6/6 A few ideas after playing quite a lot: https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5510.0 Quote I have a few suggestions that I think would be nice. Keep in mind, everything herein is my opinion, and I'm welcome to criticism as long as it's constructive. At the end of the day, developers develop at their own discretion. It's always far better to pinpoint one crisp suggestion or idea than to provide list of things. Also, having the suggestion title to clearly say what it is about helps us all. But here we go: Quote More modular modding support Modding is very simple and limited yes, but I've said it many times over the years that my intention is to develop a game rather than game creating or modding syntax. There are games that have very detailed modding possibilities, and everything is free to edit, but these have been often started up with the modding in mind. UnReal World was never designed for modding in mind, and the few possibilities we have are only quite recent additions. (Heck, even the concept of everything should made editable by the developer is somewhat recent player approach within the lifetime of the game.) The syntax will likely grow over time but it's enchanced fore mostly based on the game's need, and the possibilities then follow. Heavily moddable game development is a different game development genre in my opinion, and I have never had strong to lead such project. Quote "Vehicles" Yep. This sort of traditional means of transport are planned. Quote A "[CRUTCH]" tag Yep. Crutches, or the kind, have been suggested before and it's something that we could think of adding indeed. Not considered high priority, though, so maybe some day when time allows. Quote Smoke This would nice, but it would be also something that most players wouldn't fancy if we stay historically accurate. There are no chimneys in the cottages either, so every time you heat up the fireplaces you really want to stay outside. You'd be spending lots of time outdoors during the wintertime. We would kind of like to make it that demanding and accurate, but it wouldn't necessarily be fun addition at all. We'll postpone this, once again, for future consideration. Quote Cultural Traits In general all that would be beneficial although the level of detail, where the culture background shows, would need to be considered. There's some cultural knowledge already for example regarding plants, but it could extend basically to all the sectors of the game world. Spells, diet etc. NPCs in the village follow culturally specific things with their game animals, for example, but currently players aren't really mentioned of their background. Quote Long term projects Yep. This is something to consider endlessly. Big topic, in all the open world games. End-game comes sooner or later, even after all the possible major goals and objectives are reached. all random character creation https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5509.0 Quote Quick & Easy always creates Kaumo tribesman. Is there a way to get other random tribesman by Quick & Easy? Quick & easy always selects Kaumo, as they are often the easy to get started. More randomness is sometimes suggested, and random names also, and it's likely we'll tweak the character creation to that direction at some point. Round shields (once spear & axe shafts repair is added) https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5506.0 Quote Once tool/weapon repair "goes live", can we also get round shields repairable? I don't know, it hasn't crossed my mind. All I know is that we'll start with the basic shaft repairs first, and can think things further only after that has been implemented. In any case I don't see we'll ever have a system where you can repair just everything. Additional "trophies" https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5500.0 Quote It'd be nice if we could get skulls of taken: lynxes, gluttons, wolves. I think more skulls will be added in time, maybe even claws, but these foremostly would have to serve the setting and game world purposes i.e. to having magical and practical value within the game mechanics etc. Trophies on the walls is maybe part of more modern hunting culture, where you want to show off with your achievements. It kind of contradicts with how we imagine the ancients having respected the game. Magical usage, and hunters status necklaces, and practical applications is a different kind, but we'd like to have strong historical background to this. But yep, more skulls eventually, after some more browsing of my spell books too. However, playing with human skulls then again doesn't quite fit the world. The dead, and their parts, were feared rather than collected. Roads and creeks, brooks. Springs! https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5502.0 Quote Suggest to downsize road tiles from 100m, full zoomed-in tile 50x50, entire Wilderness map tile, -wide to mere 3-5tiles wide on zoomed-in. As much as I'd love to have this kind of additions, there are user interface related questions which are more or less unclear for me. Let's imagine we would have brooks some 1 - 12 meter wide, criss-crossing the terrain. And you're travelling on the overland map. Would you like to get notified every time you automatically cross a brook? Or get zoomed-in every time? Or just simulate on a higher level, assuming that your character figures a way to cross the brook without asking player decisions? Or allow the player some setting or configuration to be switched based on need? For example, if you are thirsty, you'd probably like to be notified whenever your character spots a small brook? Or, you are just covering a longer distance, travelling on the overland map, using the high-level simulation of automatically crossing brooks without interrupting your gameplay with constant notifications like "you cross the 23rd brook of the day, again". But then, that one time the simulation, RNG and skill checks would determine that when auto-crossing a brook you slip and fall. Now what? You then get zoomed-in into the situation? (also, I have to say that adding small paths and brooks would require a lot of additional data to the world-map, to keep track on how these smaller-than-a-world-map-tile features go, something like "this tile is mainly forest of type X, but there is a brook running from north to south, and then there is also a east-west path", and should the data structure allow only one brook and one path per world map tile, or are the occasions we would need two creeks near each other? It would be an interesting coding task to inflate this data so that when you travel in the zoomed-in map these creeks and paths would run uninterrupted but with natural curves.) I'm not saying these are reasons we won't implement these features. It is just to affirm that, like JP_Finn says, this would be a sizable change, requiring a lot of re-coding the map routines and re-structuring the entire map data structure. Crayfish https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5501.0 Quote Please consider adding crayfish in-game (astacus astacus) and "˜rapumerta' a crayfish trap. We have considered, and didn't find it too important years and years ago. We'll re-consider when time allows. Quivers https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5498.0 Quote Suggestion to add quivers. Before that multi-item containers would need to be done. We'll see in the future. But ... Quote Hand held 2 arrows, the fastest for follow up shot (ask which arrows, from single stack, to hold when wielding bow, with marginal reduction on Bow/Xbox accuracy. Selecting none results in slower follow up shots, but highest accuracy) If these 1-2 additional arrows are held in bow hand, they need to be shot first, or dropped if taking arrows from quiver or ruck. We have something along these lines already in use, and it can be assumed to resemble the fastest loading style for the archer, wherever they prefer to hold their next arrow. I think how fast one loads and shoots depends on the style they have practised meaning that holding an arrow in the bow hand doesn't automatically make you faster than loading from the quiver. Code: [Select] How fast your character reloads and shoots an arrow is now dependent on your Quote Belt quiver, 2nd fastest for follow up shots. If there were quivers in the game they would need to be back quivers as that was the type used. (Although, with belt quiver I assume you mean hip quiver.) Quote *whenever character runs, falls through ice or falls down (regardless if being struck, tired, voluntarily going prone ...) should have a chance of none, some or all arrows falling out the active quiver. Hmm. I think all the quivers that have practical value are designed so that the arrows don't fall of very easily. Also, I'm quite sure poeple really wouldn't want to constantly be afraid of arrows falling off when running in the game. "Raw Meat" recipe change. (was 'pea soup recipe change') https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5497.0 Quote Traditionally Finnish pea soup is made with leftover ham, but URW recipe for pea soup asks, optionally, for 1 lb of raw meat. I don't know if the leftovers were the traditional thing back in iron-age, but nevertheless allowing preserved meat & fish to be used in cookery recipes is something that should be taken care of at some point, and to allow it. It's been suggested few times before. With dried meat & fish I'd like to either add soakig options, or to auto-lengthen the cookery times when such ingredients are used. Shelter(s), rain&snow cover, mobile winter hunting. https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5496.0 Quote I can't come to accept that people 1,000, 2,000, 3,000... even 6,000 years ago would've not used some hides (tanned hide, fur coat, fur cloak in URW terms) to set up overnight shelter during inclement weather. To be taken down in the morning and heading back on the unknown wilderness. What was used commonly was to rest under big thick spruce trees, or to fell one spruce to lean against other to form so called "asentokuusi". Nothing more complicated was necessarily required, and that's what we'd like to feature. I'm not sure if textile shelters in loue fashion will fit the era. Auto select withes when building fences. https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5495.0 Quote Stakes are automatically selected from nearby&inventory when building fences, but withes need manual selection from inventory. Yes, it's a bit cumbersome. Upon first adding withes I kind of wanted to have fences to be built with withes alone. That would streamline fence building as only number of withes could required, and would also be true to the tradition. But as we've allowed using other cordage too, in length based units, this is how it goes. Easiest solution would be to always withes in fence building, other solutions are more demanding. One way could be to add preferred tying equipment mechanics which would then select withes automatically if available. family ties in the village? https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5494.0 Quote Hmmm ... there are children, old people and girls in the villages. It is obvious that they all have a family connection with each other. I would also like to know the age of the hunter from the neighboring village, whom I help. This could be a separate issue in the dialogue: Tell me about their family / about themselves. Residents could answer: I am a son (name) and (name) to me (age) and I have a wife (name) I am a hunter. They can only answer if they have a good relationship, if they are bad they will probably answer: I am not talking to you about this, traveler We'd like to feature this, the family relationships between the villagers. We've always wanted to feature this, but it has gotten buried under the...well...the usual evergrowing workload of other things. The age and other little details would also bring in more depth to NPCs. Quote
January 05, 2021, 06:58:30 PM |
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Fibre processing continues with retting and some spin-off features
By now spinning code is all done and tested and polished, and we're happily able to spin both nettle and hemp yarn. With some new flora_*.txt tags added it's actually possible to add fibre yield for any flora_*.txt plant, although the textilecraft processes are modelled for nettle and hemp. But yes indeed for example flax as a new fibre source can be added relatively easily. We've also added straw, a mere stalk of certain plants, as a new item type. Straws will be a byproduct of threshing plants such as nettles and hemp, but with a flora_ tag of their other plants can be also given straw yield. Straws don't (yet) have specific use of their own but do serve as material for fibre processing. Straw items were added for the sake of being able to thresh valuable plants for seeds and leaves first, and still have the straw remaining for fibre. And now there's "retting" added for textilecraft options. It's a process for separating the fibres from the stalks of harvested plants, and the first and foremost option of them all. Retting is done by soaking the plants in the water for several days. The soaking needs to be done by open water and the sufficient soaking time depends on the water temperature, varying from 5 to even 25 days. The warmer the water, the faster the retting process is. The retting doesn't occur at all in very cold water so it can't be done for example in the winter. However, nettles are a speciality and you can peel fibres from them by hand without retting, but it's relatively slow and mostly used only if small amount of yarn needs to be spun. Now the remaining steps to do on our way to completely finished textilecraft system for fibre processing would be drying the retted plants, and extracting the fibre. So let's continue ... These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.63. April 19, 2021, 04:48:22 PM |
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Re: i know it goes aginst the spirit but im frustrated with the fact its perma death
Personally I would prefer it if there was no option to resurrect characters, that is why I choose to only play or make permadeath games. I understand a reason to load saves for testing/development purposes, but in normal play even in standalone single player games cheating death is still cheating yourself and I refuse to do it and would prefer if the temptation was not there. This is just my personal ethics and I realise others have different views. May 01, 2021, 10:23:00 AM |
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Fibre processing done
So, the system of processing fibres from hemp and nettle into yarn is now all coded. Small adjustments remain, but we've happily accomplished mechanics for all the work phases and necessary adjustment to data structures. Adding this system of textilecraft has been likely the most laborous single feature to code in the upcoming version. With several other features regarding tying equipment we can talk about sort of cordage overhaul. Soon enough I'll be posting more organized entry about the whole system with screenshots, but now let's quickly cover what hasn't been covered in the earlier textilecraft news. So, the final two additions to textilecraft system were drying the retted plants and the actual extracting of fibre. Drying is simplified. It takes about a week for retted plants to dry before extracting the fibre can be proceeded. And you can basically set them drying anywhere. The idea of extracting the fibres is to break the dried retted stalks so that the woody core shatters and falls away leaving the loose fibres free. Traditionally this was done with a special device called ‘loukku’, but in the game we use more primitive method of beating the stalks for example with a club on a solid working surface. The requirements are similar to softening hides as a last step of tanning; beater and a working surface. Extracting fibres is hard physical work and commonly carried out with several people working together. If you have companions around they will help you with the task. After the breaking phase, obtained bundles of fibre are scraped free from remaining coarse parts and extraneous material. This is done in steps, first removing the biggest extraneous parts and gradually proceeding towards the finer ones. Traditionally special tools, combs and brushes were used to clean the bundles of fibre as effectively as possible. In more primitive fashion it can be also done by whisking, rubbing and whacking the bundles against a hard surface, or with tools at hand. In the game this is the method used, and the equipment available for breaking is applied here as well. All these required phases are done with single textilecraft option. Extracted fibres are obtained in small bundles, eg. "bundle of hemp fibre". These items are categorized as PLANT type in character's inventory. As mentioned before, nettle fibres can be also extracted directly from the stalk by hand even without retting. Although it's slower to mass produce fibre that way it can be useful option when only a small amount of fibre is needed. To do it, simply use extract option directly to freshly harvested nettles. The nettle stem is crushed by hand, and the fibres carefully stripped off. Character's expertise in textilecraft affects to required working time and amount of usable fibre extracted. So as your mastery in textilecraft increases you can expect to get higher fibre yield in shorter time. These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.63. May 06, 2021, 04:19:40 PM |
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Sneak preview of textilecraft system with screenshots and additional insight
Time for a little sneak preview with our textilecraft test character Kuitu Kaumolainen. Some of the stuff mentioned here has been mentioned before, but a summary about textilecraft is in place now. With some sdditional insight and sidetracking included. So, the biggest single addition to the upcoming version is featuring mechanics to extract fibres from certain plants and process them into yarn. For this, a new TEXTILECRAFT skill was created, and lots of spin-off features regarding fibre processing and cordage also followed. Fibres can be extracted from nettle, hemp and flax - which has been added as a new cultivated plant. Let's start from there ... Flax Flax is an old cultivated textile plant, but in Iron-Age Finland it wasn't even as commonly grown as hemp. One reason for this is that flax doesn't survive in the very north so in the game it's grown only by certain cultures south of Kaumo. As a curiosity, the finnish word for flax ('pellava') originally meant the nettle plant ('nokkonen') which speaks about importance of this age-old wild source of fibre. But nevertheless, flax is in the game now and it can be grown, harvested and processed for fibre.  Kuitu Kaumolainen has found his way to Kiesse, a region where flax is grown. At Kaumo where he's from they only produce nettle or hemp fibres. Blue flowering flax is easily spotted from the field, and it could be harvested for fibre already. Textilecraft options Processing plant fibres into yarn involves several stages of work, and it's all done by using your TEXTILECRAFT skill. Character's expertise in textilecraft affects to required working times and the amount of usable fibre or yarn produced. After the plants are harvested the fibres must be then separated from the plant's stalks. This process is called "retting", and it is done by soaking the plants in the water for several days. Sufficient soaking time depends on the water temperature, with the warmer being faster.  Kuitu Kaumolainen harvested 100 flaxes and headed by the lake to start retting the stalks. Here you can see all the textilecraft options to proceed with fibre extracting and spinning them into yarn. Extracting fibres is hard work It took two weeks for Kuitu's flax to soak properly. After that it took one more week to dry them. And only then Kuitu can start extracting the actual fibre from the stalks. Extracting fibres is done by breaking the dried retted stalks so that the woody core shatters and falls away leaving the loose fibres free. The stalks are beated for example with a club on a solid working surface. Extracting fibres is hard work and commonly carried out with several people working together. Traditionally there has been a custom to arrange specific work parties for processing fibres of each village together with the neighbouring people. And in the game your companions can actually help you with the task. Obtained bundles of fibre are then scraped free from remaining coarse parts. Traditionally special tools were used, but it can be also done by rubbing and whacking the bundles against a hard surface, or with tools at hand.  Kuitu starts extracting fibres from the dried retted flax stalks at his shelter. He is about to beat the stalks with a club on top of a log. These dried retted stalks could have been also stored for future and the fibre extracted when there's time and need for that. Spinning yarn It took lees than half an hour to extract the fibres from his 100 flax stalks and Kuitu got 16 bundles of flax fibre. Fibres can be then spun into yarn either by hand, which is slower, or using a spindle. Spindle is also a new craftable item, and very easy to make. So Kuitu crafts a spindle and starts spinning. He decides to go for full length yarn. When starting spinning it is possible to choose how long yarn you wish to spin on one go.  Kuitu manages to spin 80 meters of linen yarn in less than two hours. It could be then used in crafting of different items such as loop snares, arrows - or fishing rods. Nettle specialities In the next version it will be also possible to craft fishing rods, and hooks out of wood or bone. And a working fishing rod naturally needs a line too. Now Kuitu has his linen yarn which could be used as line, but the whole process of extracting flax fibres with retting and drying took weeks. That's quite a long time if there's an urgent need for little piece of yarn. Luckily there's also faster wilderness condition option for utilizing plant fibres - and that is a nettle. Nettle fibres are a speciality as they be extracted directly from the fresh plants without retting and drying processes. To do it you can simply use "extract fibre" option directly to freshly harvested nettles. This method takes more time, but is an useful option when only a small amount of fibre is needed. The nettle stem is crushed by hand, and the fibres carefully stripped off. It doesn't take long before Kuitu finds some nettles. Textile plant harvesting is made possible for fibre even when they are still growing.  Kuitu harvests some nettles. Then he simply extracts the fibres by hand, and spins some nettle yarn. If he would like to produce a lot of yarn, this would be too slow to be practical, but now he's only after fishing rod line, Wooden hook, nettle yarn - and baits Kuitu finds a slender tree trunk, fashions a wooden hook out of a branch, and proceeds to assemble a fishing rod. Now we should mention that In the upcoming version usage of baits in fishing is also featured. Using baits is not necessary, but naturally highly recommended. Catching a fish every now and then without a bait is still possible, but for reliable rod fishing and decent catches baits are now quite essential. You can use pretty much every food item as a bait and portion of the selected item will be used during the fishing attempt. Pieces of raw meat and fish can be considered decent baits for predatory fish, but for example crumbs of bread may also work for some fish. You can also use a whole small fish, eg. roach or perch, in order to attract a bigger predatory fish. With this addition in effect the type of fish caught with rod fishing is now more dependant on the baits used. It's not likely that you'll catch a pike with an empty hook, but having a small roach as a bait might work. And that little roach might have been caught with quite moderate bait such as bread crumb, or even with some tasty vegetation.  Kuitu makes his survival fishing rod, with a wooden hook and nettle yarn. The work with the several less laborous features continues but we're getting closer to release every day. It's always quite impossible to say when everything is completely wrapped up and working, but maybe - just maybe - we might have this version out in june. Cheers! For those who are more curious about the real life practises here's a short documentary in Finnish showing how the flax is processed. Having read the above I trust you will understand what is happening even without subtitles. The gear used differs slghtly from the more primitive method of the game, but the steps are the same; sow, harvest, ret, dry, extract, spin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNFD_CUlxZU May 11, 2021, 03:52:38 PM |
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...and snow penalties for all
Back at snow code. A good while ago we added the snow crust to weatherengine. Its' working game mechanics in character's life are still pending to be added, and so are the skiing NPCs. Both are coming up, but before that these improvements were first in line. - improved: moving in the snow mobility and fatigue penalties Previously there was one overall reduction to character's mobility when moving in the snow without skis, but now the actual snow depth affects to how much the mobility is actually reduced. The same goes for fatigue as it now accumulates slower or faster depending on the snow depth. Shortly, the deeper the snow the harder and slower it is to trudge through it without skis. - added: snow penalties for animals and NPCs NPCs and animals now suffer from the snow penalties similarly to player character. All the snow penalty mechanics now work the same for player character, other human beings and animals. The actual snow depth that starts to hinder the animals is naturally relative to their size. A human knee deep snow is a little extra strain for an adult elk, but for example a wild boar or dog would suffer from it more significantly. The new snow depth mechanics bring in many new factors to animal movement and hunting scenarios. For example, it now becomes actually possible to practice traditional hunting tactics to more easily chase elks on skis during the deep snow period. It should be noted that there also several animals that are adapted to moving in the snow without much difficulties at all. There are for example hare, lynx, glutton, weasel, ermine, squirrel and so on. For animals like these the snow penalties appear far lesser, and they have their species specific snow movement adjustments in action. These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.63. May 21, 2021, 02:19:58 PM |
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Open World Sale on Steam & Dev's life picture feed from the real world
A special sale focusing on Open World games has started on Steam and lasts until 31th of May. We wholeheartedly cherish this special event and celebration of infinite exploration. You know, it's very much our genre, since early 90s, and acknowledged with (debatable) merits such as First open-world survival game (GWR Gamer's Edition 2019). Anyway, it's a special opportunity to grab the game for discounted price from the Steam. Just venture at UnReal World store page. Since this is very dear topic, genre and approach to game development for us, we wanted to celebrate the occasion with special content. Those who have followed the development do know that for Enormous Elk game development isn't actually clean indoors job. We tend to practise what we code, pursue the traditional lifestyle to varying extent, and draw a lot of inspiration from the real world experiments and adventures. As a special way to celebrate the ongoing Open World Sale we've compiled you this picture feed of the two man dev. team doing their infinite exploration outside the development chambers. This is an assorted collection of dev's life along the way in the real world. Enjoy!  Erkka (co-designer) on the left with frame drum, Sami (creator) on the right with kantele, at gorgeous Orinoro gorge in eastern Finland.  Sami doing elks calls in the woods.  Erkka walking horses in the woods.  Traditional log building with traditional equipment. Erkka on the left, Sami on the right.  Erkka's sauna warming up on a winter day.  Broad beans are flowering while Sami is cooking something.  Sami takes a look at the open arctic world.  Rowing in the summer evening.  Roasting the catch in the rain.  Sami after threshing rye in the barn in all traditional, and smoky fashion.  Erkka after some muddy work.  Find a dev among the sheep.  Sami is getting a feel of the wilderness.  Erkka chopping firewood.  Sami doing mounted archery.  Breakfast for Erkka.  Summery coffee break for the two-man dev. team.  Skiing with a shovel preparing to settle here for a night.  Sami's bicycle trip to gather a bunch of wild greens was a success.  And so was Erkka's fishing trip.  Happy islander.  It's winter. It's open world.  On Hornankallio cliff Sami takes a look at the familiar landscape - not too far away from his development chambers.  The Road goes ever on and on ... And if the road goes smoothly the next update, UnReal World version 3.70, will be released in June, 2021.  Cheers! May 27, 2021, 08:27:58 PM |
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