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Topics - Sami

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91
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!

92
Development News / Summer and sales, and a new patch in horizon
« on: June 28, 2020, 05:00:00 PM »
It's summer, and Summer Sales have been launched both on Steam and Itch.Io.
So it's two options for you to get UnReal World for discounted price.
And we should also let you know that before the sales period is over, a new patch will be released.

Something to consider and look forward to.

Summery greetings from a mighty birch tree!

Sami - UnReal World developer

93
So it was said earlier - quite a long time earlier actually - that fire mechanics are about to undergo some improvements. Now there's some concrete upcoming features highlight on that as follows. Lots of adjustments have been done and all the fire stuff has become more flexible to allow numerous little features still to follow. Let's see where it goes, but at least these are in already:

- 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 and remains of burnt-out fires will be now 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.

 - 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.

These are upcoming features, not yet functional in current version 3.62.

94
So we've completed a suggestion reply marathon, which means giving a reply to each suggestion from a longer period of time.
This time the marathon covers six month period from October 2019 to March 2020.
The results are compiled in one forum thread which you can find here (pinned at Suggestions section):
http://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5485.0

All the replies are also up at in their respective forums threads.

Have a look and hopefully get slightly clearer view of where the development is going to.

Phew! That was whole lotta replying.

95
Suggestions / Suggestion reply marathon | Oct 2019 - Mar 2020
« on: April 28, 2020, 04:22:57 PM »
Suggestion reply marathon - Oct 2019 - Mar 2020

This marathon thread is a compilation of suggestions and replies to them from six from month period of October 2019 to March 2020.
Each reply can be also found in their respective forums threads. By the time the marathon was done around 15% of new suggested things were already featured in the game. Naturally some of these things will never end up in the game but replies are given nevertheless and thus the development roadmap hopefully grows clearer.
After these replies my time to continue ponderings on these very subjects rarely continues, but the topics stay open and discussion can naturally go on till the end of time.

Here we go...



Changing maximum lengh of thread/cord/... possible in recipes to 16 bits

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5197.0

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There are a few cases where you'd really want quite substantial lengths of material when crafting items. Currently this affects mods only, but once those kinds of crafting recipes make it into the game itself they may cause issues.
..
As indicated, it's not urgent, but something that may become an issue in the future.

No issues in sight. Then one just selects multiple lesser-than-required length tying equipment. Eg. if 1500 ft of cord is needed you can use a stack of 100 * 15 ft cords.



Making location of bird thief quest traps a little bit easier

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=4556.0

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The Bird Thief quest can be a real pain when the target area is coniferous, as visibility is poor to start with, and there's a significant risk of the traps being obscured for the player by trees on top of that. The description talks about human footprints, so it would make sense to actually have human footprints in the area, similar to how the Wounded Adventurer quest has animal footprints (but the human wouldn't remain in the area, obviously).

I like the idea of footprint possibility. That would make sense indeed. Should this get added at some point the footprints visibility would naturally also depend on terrain, elements and character's tracking skill.



Wishlist

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5204.0

Firstly, it's a good policy to pinpoint a suggestion or two rather than post lists. That way it's easier to find, read and discuss these things.

Quote
Have all items on your animals be available in the trade screen.

Would surely be handy with tons of items on tons of animals but as this is an interface limitation getting to tweak it now is way too costly compared to the importance.


Quote
An auto-pause when spotting wild animals. If not having an auto-pause is a feature to make stalking pray harder, then I understand.

There's an auto-pause when spending time in one location. When moving about I feel this isn't needed.


Quote
Multi-select in the action menu. My use case would be to unleash/tie all or some animals at a time, equip ski stick/skis/paddle (my courtyard is only accessible through water or a gauntlet of traps).

I see the point, but unfortunately the internal design limits things like from being easily adjusted. As it's a matter of playstyle how much keyboard jockeying we all have to do on game-daily basis this also feels very costly compared to importance.


Quote
Ask which target to attack when multiple beings are standing on a tile. Additionally have the attack repeat function (key: 3) remember who you last attacked and keep attacking them for each successive attack.

That target selection is done. I feel it's best to keep attack repeat target selectable as sometimes we want to repeat the same good attack at different nearby targets. It's hard to say which is the most common attack-repeat usage for the majority of players, but I don't recall anybody suggesting a different functionality earlier.


Quote
Allow non-weapons to be thrown when both hands are wielding something. My use case is throwing bait on traps. Currently I either drop bait and push it on a trap or un-equip one hand and throw the bait.

Neat and simple idea. Will browse the throwing code and consider. This could be implemented so that such throwing would be always allowed in non-attack manner, ie. if the target isn't a creature. Then you could also toss a branch into the fire with equipped hands etc.


Quote
Crossbows should not require the 2nd hand slot to hold an arrow. Crossbow items if loaded should say what type of arrow is loaded in its name and you should be able to use the action menu (or some other way) to unload/reload them . Once loaded you should be able to swap an unloaded crossbow with a loaded one from your inventory.

Two slots occupied reflects the fact that proper crossbow usage needs two hands, and carrying loaded crossbow is simply a risk one wouldn't take. Hold it carelessly with one hand and you might easily fire it while running or moving about. (As an interesting trivia, ancient Finns had very unique way of shooting with crossbows holding it at about the hip height. It's quite slow and delicate process to start with.)


Quote
Have a repeat the exact last crafting recipe key. My use case is smoking/drying/roasting batches of 19 per cord or 10 for roasting. Preferably it would be press shift-r, a list of what you are about to craft shows up in the message log and then press space to confirm crafting.

I see the point, and we try to ease keyboard jockeying every now and then little by little. This would be biggie, and trickier than it seems at first. Can't say much more about this right now, have to consider carefully.


Quote
In the eating screen remember what you last ate and have it automatically selected.

It should work like that already.


Quote
Separate talk/command to shift-c for talking to people and something else for ordering/interacting with your pets. Unless all my dogs are visible to me, the chat selection is bogged down by all the names of dogs not visible to me.

It's very likely that we get into separating chat from commanding in the near future. How it works now is very clumsy even if you weren't a dog hoarder.


Quote
Digging holes should be a resumable task. If you stop digging you lose all your progress and the dirt you dug out magically goes back in the unfinished hole.

This is done already.


Quote
Have items of the same exact type and weight stack with ones already packed on animals instead of making a separate entry.

That's how it should work alrady. Big stacks may break the rule, though. I'd have to check the case individually to get a better idea.


Quote
Have animals/pets have the same unique item limit that a player has. Currently animals have a ~20 unique item limit and you’ll receive a “Burden of x is too much for “animal name” to carry!” despite having weight/load capacity left.

We've imagined pack animals being used for carrying carefully selected items. Some slender trunks and bags of rye, maybe dozen of furs, and pile of meat. I'm aware that if they are used as walking general stores the limit is hit. However, expanding animal data is bound to take place somewhere in the future, but needs to be linked with other animal structure related overhauls.  The actual timing can't be predicted.


Quote
When walking over items you’ll see two different font colors, blue if there’s a single item and black if there’s multiple ones. Please use one font color (blue or something else) for both cases so that it is easier to distinguish items on the ground from other things.

It's been like this forever with no alternate suggestions heard out loud so in that sense it's better not to touch it.



Making Clothing

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5224.0

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Shouldn't making fur and leather clothing be Hideworking instead of Common?

Clothmaking is very simplified, and we've been thinking of completely new "clothmaking" skill along with some complexity to the process, but these things have delayed and delayed. Generic clothmaking/tailoring skill is also debatable add as technically textilecraft is again very different from leatherworking. And one can also be excellent fur tanner but a lousy clothmaker - so having the both under hideworking have felt tricky too.  I guess because of all this hesitation a proper move hasn't been made.

But yes, fur and leather clothmaking could be made prone to hideworking. (Harnmaster, my all-time favourite inspirational rpg system, has it like that too.) And we could then feature textilecraft later on. We'll consider. It requires adding some additional complexity before the mere change feels justified, though.



Goats!

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5227.0

Quote
Goats are hardy breeds, producing fur, meat and milk.
..
They are also cheaper, more self reliant and judging by these reports was introduced in the Stone Age never mind Iron Age Finland!

Yes, goats would fit in the game world nicely. One decent thing to consider among so many others.



ft of Cord

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5234.0

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Instead of having a separate length of cord why not make them all 1ft? The item would then be called "ft of Cord" and the length would be in the quantity.

Doesn't feel like a reasonable adjustment - especially just so shortly after long-awaited measure of length system has been built up.



Rafts!

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5200.0

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So, it takes 3 500lbs logs to make an 80lbs raft?
Perhaps slender logs should be used instead? In real life I wouldn't  fell 3 full sized trees for a simple raft - I'd fell smaller trees anyways.

Raft weight shall be fixed. It's indeed way too low,  80 pounds currently.
Numerous raft related additions are also being planned, for example small raft from slender trunks.
Also, rowing the raft should be way slower than going with a punt. Moving a heavy raft with paddle should be both slow and quite a bit exhausting as well.



Physician skill healing party members

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5241.0

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I was thinking, instead of letting party members heal automatically maybe u would need the physician skill? Then ppl would need to choose if they want to make themselves a beefy character or if they boost their physician skill and aim to get help from others, perhaps?

It's not good to make NPCs completely dependant on character's physician skill - they have it also in their own skills galore. But importance of character's physician skills is already featured to some extent as you can use it to treat bleeding wounds of your companions. Some of these can be the kind of wounds which NPCs don't always necessarily manage to stop by themselves. Other physician processes could be also extended to allow treating NPCs (and pets), and that would be interesting indeed.



A Few Ideas: Agricultural help, Snake fangs and more…

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5242.0

Firstly, it's a good policy to pinpoint a suggestion or two rather than post lists. That way it's easier to find, read and discuss these things.

Quote
Agricultural help from companions. I recently was harvesting my herb patches and I had a companion. As I cut down the nettles, I wished I could ask him to either thresh the plants behind me or pick them up for me.

Yep. The ways that companions can help out the player character need to keep increasing. And this surely should be included.


Quote
Putting branches in an ice hole to help delay refreezing.

This would be an interesting trivial addition. It immediately comes to mind where to find data about how much this should delay the freezing.


Quote
Player characters shouldn't start with perfect knowledge of traps.

Agreed. And player characters shouldn't start with perfect knowledge of all the other crafts and constructions either. It would suit the game world perfectly is if things needed to be learned gradually and in more culturally dependant fashion.


Quote
Snakes should drop fangs/teeth. Maybe could be a spell component. A Sage request item?

Would be nice little detail, among many others. We'll see if a proper in-game context comes in our way at some point.

Quote
Trading with different types of people should mean what items you trade with should have different values.

Yep. This is the trading direction we'll turn to at some point. The timing can't be predicted, though. It needs detailed planning and some unhurried time to concentrate on trading as a whole.



Traps should be nerfed

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5248.0

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I've been playing for years now and the big thing I've noticed is how incredibly easy the game becomes after setting up a single trap-fence. Usually on the border of a open mire and a coniferous forest or coniferous mire. Or by just keeping a trap-fence around my settlement I often have an elk or reindeer diving straight into one of my traps once every two months.

It's quite dangerous to go adjusting the traps as whole based on only few character's playstyle. Trapping is also frustratingly difficult to some at some times. I'd really need to see the trap-setting you have found all-too-easy, and then see what is actually the thing to tweak.
For example, if settlements are surrounded by trap-fences and huge trap complexes that costantly seem to get catch we should better make certain animals more scared of human presence, or human activity, rather than to adjust trap effectiveness.

I find the trapping system working quite nicely, but I'm quite moderate and traditional trapper in the game. So, I could first have look at people's trapping-sites from savegames if you find them unjustly fruitful.



Difficulty Scaling

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5250.0

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I believe the game would benefit from adding difficulty options during character creation. What I suggest are things that affect the entire game world such as animal spawn rates, bandit spawns, average item quality in villages, average temperature and so on. All of which intended to make the game harder only.


Difficulty levels such as these isn't my cup of tea. To me this would mean a whole different approach to the whole game design. I'd rather tweak the game mechanics and add content to feature more of that desired difficulty, and allow playstyle choices to affect how harsh and risky character's life will be.



Field dress/quarter big game

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5251.0

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Option to field dress or quarter game. It might make the difference in weight reduction to be able to pick or pack carcasses and transport back to a preferred processing location.

Would be a reasonable addition, and working on this would also turn focus to maybe adding organs and blood too. We'll consider.
Heavy carcasses, big elks and such, would probably still remain a burden to transport as field dressing on average reduces the living weight by 30% or so.



[naming: last word] functionality extension

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5258.0

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I propose a small extension that could greatly improve customisation and simplify many mod recipes I've seen.
..
In addition to "last word",  it should be possible to use integer values:
"n" : get the value of the nth word
..
In a similar fashion,  as it happens in python lists:
"-n" : get the value of the nth last word

Hmm. Gotta check the code and consider. It may seem simple and quick thing to add on the outisde, but as the game hasn't been designed for modding things can be quite a mess in the inside.



Arrowheads

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5259.0

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Instead of just gathering common rocks in order to form arrows, why not craft arrowheads from stone/rock. It would be interesting to do flintnapping, or to carve arrowheads from bone and antlers.

Iron arrowheads could be a trade item, too, instead of completed Superior arrows. It would feel great to trade for some Superior iron arrowheads and form my own arrows.

I'm all in for making archery related stuff more detailed. It's currently all too easy to make deadly arrows from generic branches and rocks.

Flint isn't commonly found, but arrowheads from bone and other rocks would do. Also, acquiring arrowsheads by trading is a thing that I'm in for.

I could spend lots and lots of time for some archery gear overhauls. We'll see what happens at what point.



Name of animal on Animal commands

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=5261.0

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Can we get the name of the animal on the Animal commands.
I have attachted an example.

Yes, that would help owners of many animals to be sure the right one got commanded. Simple addition, we'll put it to effect.



Choosing target for attack if they're occupying a single tile

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=4979.0

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A simple menu: "Attack which target?" please!

Just letting you all know that this feature is coming up.



More Tracking info

https://www.unrealworld.fi/forums/index.php?topic=4967.0

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an tracker at a certain level should be able to see if his prey is crippled by it's gait and I should also be able to determine relative size small, big, from tracks these small changes would make it easier follow specific animal in a herd.

This is coming up. Both limping and animal size info will be added to tracking description.



End of part 1/3. Read on ...

96
Development News / The situation and stuff
« on: April 11, 2020, 01:13:35 PM »
These are challenging times. I hope you are doing okay and healthy.
And I believe the game may serve as a breath of fresh air during the times of isolation.
Also, it's fine to express our thoughts and feelings and experiences about the pandemic on the forums too, if you feel like it.

Finland is locked down too, but things haven't changed all that much for me or Erkka as it's remote countryside life anyway.
The virus affects the daily life nevertheless, and these days portion of my time and energy also goes to assist close elderly people who need help.

The development is being kept on, but I tend to get swamped under feedback simply because people have more time to play the game and I have less time play the developer role. ;) I maybe delayed with replies and reactions, but nevermind - still doing my best to cope with the life and the game.

There is fistful of bugs pending to be fixed, and I've started writing reply marathon to suggestions from the past six months or so. I guess it will be the first reply marathon at the new forums, but it's still several evenings away before I'm done with it. From my own endless to-do pool I've started work on improvements regarding the fire mechanics. There are many little things to adjust and add, but you'll hear more about it when it all starts to shape up.

Take care!

97
Having hard time learning UnReal World keyboard commands?
Interested in modding keyboard macros for repeated tasks?
Or just wishing to use a touch screen instead of the physical keyboard?

We have some good news for you! A brand new UnReal World Mobile Controller app does exactly those things. Tap a "BUILD FIRE" button on touch screen and your character starts to build a fire. Tap "EAT" button and it will open a list of your food items, and you can use the Mobile Controller buttons to choose the item to eat. Edit a XML-file to customize the Mobile Controller virtual buttons, so that you can have buttons so arranged it best fits your personal playstyle.

The app comes in two versions; A free version with Google ads and with the standard virtual button layouts. And a paid full version which doesn't have ads and also allows you to use custom layouts. At the moment the Mobile Controller is available for Android only. An iPhone version might follow later on, depending on demand.

Find the UnReal World Mobile Controller at Google Play.
The full version
The free version

The app idea was suggested by a fellow indie inventor Ilmari Tamminen from Vaakalintu Ltd.
He did a whole lot of the design work, while Erkka (from Enormous Elk) did the coding.
This thing has been cooking for quite some time and now it's officially released.

Mobile Controller works with version 3.62 onwards.





98
The time has come for us to enter the realm of itch.io and offer more of an indie marketplace for the game in addition to Steam distribution.

UnReal World is now available on itch.io. Launch sale lasts until end of march 2020. The price of the game on itch.io is slightly lower than on Steam, version updates to both will continue to follow similarly.

Here's our Itch.Io page:
https://enormous-elk.itch.io/unreal-world

Take a look, take your pick, spread the word, stay healthy.

99
Development News / Version 3.62 released on Steam, and for lifetimers
« on: March 16, 2020, 05:12:52 PM »
Wrapping things up went easily so it's time for the first release of 2020 as version 3.62 is now released.
It's available on Steam, and Lifetimers will find the release at the designated forum section.
Later this week we'll be setting things up on itch.io and release the game there as well, with continuing updates. We'll announce when it happens.

But well, what's new?
Half a dozen additions and dozen of bugfixes as follows:

3.62 changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.40-> are compatible with this version.  **


- added: trading cap for meat and fish

         Villagers stop accepting meat and fish in trading when if they have decent reserves already.
         This cap isn't fixed but depends on village population. Also, cooked meat and fish are often
         accepted in larger amounts than raw.

- added: digging and filling up pits are now pausable tasks

         You can stop these processes at will and continue later on by [a]pplying your shovel again.
         
- changed: pits are now simply called pits instead of former vague term 'hole in the ground'.

- added: tracks getting covered and decayed by snowfall and rain

        Snowfall and rain now affect to tracks getting covered and decayed. You'll notice these effects
        by tracks getting less visible, and eventually disappearing completely. How fast this happens
        depends naturally on amount of the rain or snowfall. Severe snowfall may cover even the fresh
        tracks in an hour or so. Decay caused by rain is often lesser, but still noticeable. The older
        the tracks are the sooner they are prone to decay and disappear in case of both elements.

- added: tracks left by children now appear smaller

        This includes graphical presentation and description of the tracks eg. "You see here small
        human tracks."

- added: aggressive village dogs calm down together with their masters

        In case of minor breaches villagers might punish you for a while and calm down after you had
        learned your lesson - but their dogs didn't react accordingly. Now village dogs will calm down
        if their masters do so. This doesn't prevent village dogs from being a serious threat as they
        don't always reason the power of their attacks the same way the humans do and may cause lethal
        wounds by accident.

- adjusted: precautions regarding character save failures

        Additional precautions to overcome rare cases of character data blanking upon unexpected
        termination of the game have been added.

- adjusted: map maintenance routines
     
        The adjustments remedy rare occasion of too frequent maintenances of fresh characters with heavily
        explored zoomed-in maps.

- fixed: overlapping tracks modifying the existing track information

        Things like animal size and track freshness were sometimes mistakenly modified by overlapping tracks.

- fixed: watercraft mistakenly transported with the character when zooming out right after getting on shore

- fixed: everlasting small bones

        Certain bones would never get eaten up completely no matter how long dogs would chew on them.

- fixed: carcass disappearing if the creature dies while making a hole in the ice

- fixed: human tracks described wrong

        NPC description was mistakenly added to track description.
        It said eg. "You see here craftsmanhuman tracks." instead of intended "You see here human tracks".

- fixed: quality improvement when items decay to stale stage
   
        Foodstuff and skins might mistakenly improve a bit in quality when decaying if their original quality
        was the lowest possible.
           
- fixed: sages of some cultures not replying with valid phrases when asked for their skills and expertise
 
- fixed: animals released from the forest cover not following character on zoomed-out map level

        This got broken along with NPC pet ownership additions. Now it works again as it should.

- fixed: some cave treasures you heard of were never to be found

        The bug was caused by map maintenance being prone to mistakenly remove cave treasure locations.

- fixed: partially skinned carcasses mistakenly turning skinned upon map load

     This bug usually manifested itself when skinning got interrupted and the character fell asleep, which
     also initiates map save and re-load.

- typo corrected: angrered -> angered

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Who can have it?

You can have it, but you gotta get it from Steam - or later this week also from itch.io.
The release interval between paid and "donation-based" releases have grown significantly longer than what we have gotten used to in the past. This is because during past years donations have dried out disallowing solely donation-based development to thrive. Donations are still an option, people do it for a reason or another, but your generosity isn't any longer linked to the great perk of most up-to-date version being freely available for everyone. I'll be happy to answer possibly puzzled questions of relatively recent of near-future intending donors, so don't hesitate to eg. e-mail me if you feel like it.

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100
Development News / Pausable digging and filling up pits
« on: March 14, 2020, 12:56:22 PM »
We're wrapping up version 3.62.
A trusty small patch with about half a dozen additions and dozen of fixes.
It's just around the corner.
Of the latest additions digging and filling up pits are now made pausable, so you can stop these shoveling processes at will and continue later on by [a]pplying your shovel again.

Now it only takes some building, packaging and testing and hopefully the next week will be the release week.

101
Today, February 28th, Finland celebrates Kalevala Day and the Day of Finnish Culture in honor of The Kalevala - a 19th century work of epic poetry regarded as our national epic. That's something to celebrate, but we've got some more for you on this special day...

In early 2020 we received an interesting e-mail from a player (Cheers, Travis!) sending congratulations on a milestone: UnReal World had lasted 10,000 days in the real world.
This was calculated from the date stamp in executable file of version 1.00b distribution archive. We don't even remember the exact release date, but it was summer of 1992. So the continuing lifespan of the game is at least 10,000 days - and well, it's quite something.

Needless to say, The Kalevala and UnReal World go well together. It is not so much about direct influence as a book, but the game draws inspiration from the same pool of oral tradition, folklore and mythology of our ancestors. Of this content some is rooted in ancient unrecorded history dating back thousands of years, and some is closer to Iron Age - where the game takes place. So let this day be a celebration of The Kalevala, but also 10,000 days of digital Finnish Culture in the form of UnReal World.

10,000 days...

10,000 days is a long time. Lines of source code in the game now sports somewhere around 140,000.
On average that makes:
14 lines of code per day
for 10,000 days.

Changelogs for version releases contain around 15000 lines of text, so that makes:
1,5 lines of changelog entries per day
for these 10,000 days.


...and continuing

That's just some numbers to give an idea of the long history, which is continuing as we speak. It seems to be 9 days since the last dev.post here at the forums.
So on average there should be around 126 new lines of code and 13,5 lines of changelog entries written.
We haven't checked but we are continuing.

Would you buy an old but continuously developed fenno-ugric roguelike from these guys?

From the left: Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer) of UnReal World

We wish you happy Kalevala Day and the Day of (digital) Finnish Culture.
Let's continue.

102
Development News / Tracks covered and decayed by snowfall and rain
« on: February 19, 2020, 06:40:22 PM »
I've had a simple roadmap for the next patch update with a simple goal of "fix a dozen things, add half a dozen new things". The fixes are soon done, and new features are being worked on. One thing to mention is an addition of snowfall and rain now covering and decaying tracks. Track decay rate naturally depends on amount of snowfall or rain, and also the age of the tracks. Severe snowfall may cover fresh tracks in a hour so the weather now gets to play a greater role in tracking.

Few more fixes, few more additions to go. And then getting to build a new update. And as we can see and imagine from this example one single addition can easily include half a dozen side factors and bring up dozens of new situations to our adventuring characters.

103
Development News / Year 2019 now added to development history log
« on: February 13, 2020, 04:46:39 PM »
Briefing of the year 2019 is now summarized up at "Development history of UnReal World" section at the homepage.

You can take a look at the Dev.news since 1992 page here:
https://www.unrealworld.fi/urw_devhist.html

104
Development News / Start-of-the-year post
« on: January 27, 2020, 08:30:41 PM »
2020, here we go! I hope everyone is doing alright.
For me, the last year started with a broken shoulder and the winter was pretty much over before I recovered up to healthy coding condition. This year starts better, with no serious injuries, and wrestling with bugs reported during my lengthened holiday season has been going on for a good while.
   The winter hasn't been much of a winter, though. We barely have snow, it's been a very few minus degree periods during the midwinter and the thin ice cover on the lakes lakes keep thawing and freezing. I've longed to go for skiing the whole winter, but that hasn't been possible. Bummer.
   But here we go, starting up a new year of game development. Minor bugfix updates to be expected first. Stay tuned.
And if you're up to sharing your own start of the year feelings feel free to drop a few lines. Cheers!

105
Development News / 3.61 released (on the homepage) and a happy new year!
« on: December 31, 2019, 05:27:07 PM »
On my behalf this decade ends with release of version 3.61 out to public on the homepage. Standalone installers are available now. If you're new to this version find your way to downloads section and be sure also to view changelog there as a lot has changed in 3.60 and 3.61.

We wish you a happy new year! (...and happy new version for those who only now get to try it out.)

I'll keep hibernating for a little while, although may occasionally reply to a post or two, but getting back on track for real with coding will have to wait until mid-january.

See you in 2020 - that's yet another decade for UnReal World development as well.

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