Public Beta for v3.0.1n!

v3.0.1n - BETA 3

NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, so if you switch back to that versions, you can continue playing a save from this beta.

But multiplayer games are NOT backward-compatible with the last released patch, so you can only play with those who have this beta.

IMPROVEMENT:

Increased wolf wakefulness from 8 to 10 hours per 24-hour period, reducing the sleep requirement from 16 to 14 hours per day.

Why this change? The 8-hour Wakefulness duration worked well initially, but over the years we have added a variety of features (such as injuries and hex invasions) that have made Wakefulness a greater constraint on gameplay. To rebalance the game, we have added two hours to Wakefulness. Now Wakefulness lasts 10 game-hours, which is equivalent to 25 real-world minutes in single-player and accelerated multiplayer and 33 minutes in normal time multiplayer). Since game-days are several minutes longer, we increased pup growth rates so most quests take about the same amount of real-world time. The exception is Growing Pups, which is time-based (five days), and it's not feasible to make it 20% faster.

Trying to determine how much wild wolves sleep is tricky, of course, since it can be hard to differentiate deep sleep from naps and dozing, but we checked with our wolf advisors and got approval for a fairly wide range of sleep.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS:

• Pack Life and Territory modes: Extended each season version to last through a full year.

• Multiplayer: Gave a tint to text which uses the /me command, to avoid confusion.

• Changed the pup coats for White Lady to better match the adult (young version) coat colors.

• Tweaks to sky lighting, especially at sunrise and sunset.

BUGS FIXED:

• Cougar and lynx scent tracks have wrong track icon.

• Multiplayer: When client is on different Sky & Veg mode than the host, occasional differences in cloud coverage coding implementation causes snow to flicker on and off for clients.