A small patch has been released to fix the following issues, which probably occurred only for a subset of adventurers.

Version 3.84.1

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- fixed: continuing pausable crafting with inferior tools caused erroneous production times

If inferior tools were used to start and continue pausable crafting tasks the remaining production times were not always set correctly. This glitch occasionally initiated conditions where continued pausable crafting required seemingly endless production times.

- fixed: wrong javelin item tile

------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers! urw_sage

Version 3.84 (stable) is now released and live for all the supported operating systems.

Version 3.84 continues the ongoing transition to make all the crafting tasks pausable, features a good deal of related crafting requirement changes, adds BOWYER skill, introduces springs as a new water source and naturally offers a fistful of bugfixes too.

In the midst of big changes in regards to pausable crafting we hope for the bugs to be scarcer than average adventurer's nutrition levels. ;) And whatever is encountered we do our best to maintain a swift update cycle to overcome the issues as early on as possible.

Here's the changelog:

Version 3.84 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: BOWYER skill

The bowyer skill is the ability and knowledge to make bows. Success in the skill determines the quality of the bows crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.
Needless to say, the available craftable bows now call for BOWYER skill in their crafting.

- added: craftable Longbow

You can craft a longbow from [M]ake menu under "Weapons" category.

- added: pausable weapon crafting

Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Weapons" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. These weapons are stone-axe, stone knife, club, javelin, spruce quick-bow, shortbow, longbow and bowstring.
To continue paused weapon crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. Like the other partially crafted items these will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- changed: crafting times and requirements of certain weapons

Now that the weapon crafting is pausable the production times of certain weapons have been increased to more reasonable levels. There are also minor changes in some material or tool requirements.
The changes are as follows, but bear in mind that these are the average set values and poor tools and/or skills may very well double the actual production times.

* Stone-axe

Stone-axe gets the greatest time increase in the production time as on average it now takes 50 hours to make one. That's a lot, but it really is a slow process to get the stone blade knapped and grinded out to shape that is efficient for felling trees.
Thus, stone-axe now becomes a survival option which you won't take up too lightly, but only in extreme need. Crafting a stone-axe now also needs another stone for final sharpening and polishing. Also, the previous requirement for rope has been replaced with strong cordage requirement. This means you can also use for example spruce withes for securing the head in place in the handle.

* Stone knife

It now takes 5 hours on average to make and also requires a stone for final sharpening.

* Javelin

It now takes 2 hour on average to make.

* Shortbow

It now takes 12 hours on average to make. The time increase is signficant compared to the earlier, and only a skilled bowyer with quality tools may manage to craft a shortbow in one day. With mediocre skills and tools it's a process of several work days.

* Longbow

It takes 18 hours on average to make. Thus, crafting a longbow is a process of several work days even for a skilled bowyer.

* Bowstring

It now takes 2 hours on average to make a bowstring from strands of yarn, and 30 minutes on average from a ready-made cord. When using a ready-made cord it often needs to be thinned down to suitable thickness so it's not just tying of the knots.

- added: BOWSTRING game encyclopedia (F1) entry

- updated: SHORTBOW and LONGBOW game encyclopedia (F1) entries

- added: pausable haft crafting

Crafting of the spear, axe and shovel hafts are now pausable tasks.

- added: pausable item trap crafting and loop snare batch production

Crafting of the paw-board fox trap and loop snare are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Paw-board

Crafting time has been increased to three hours.

* Loop snare

Loop snares can be made in batches of up to ten at a time, and it takes 20 minutes on average to craft one.

- added: pausable lumber items crafting

Crafting of the wooden stakes, staves and wood slats are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wood slat

Crafting time for a batch of 20 slats has been increased to 200 minutes.

* Wooden stake

Wooden stakes are made in sets of 5 pieces from one slender tree trunk. Previously it was 8 pieces from one trunk.

* Staff

When crafting staves one slender tree trunk can yield 3 proper straight staves. Previously it was one trunk for one staff.

- added: pausable utility article crafting for some items in the category

Crafting of the wooden shovel, birch-bark box and birch-bark basket are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wooden shovel

It is now made from a board instead of a wooden block. The crafting time has been incresed to 8 hours.

- added: springs

Springs are water sources bringing groundwater to the surface. They can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in maps at varying environments in size of one to three map tiles.
Springs do remain unfrozen even in the winter which makes them very useful water sources. A spring found in the wilderness may provide a great spot for a homestead for those who like to live in the forest further away from the lakes or rivers.
From now on the village water supply ponds are also springs. As they don't freeze they are easier to maintain and spot even in the winter.
MIGRATION NOTICE: Water supply ponds in the villages you have visited in the previous version will automatically turn into springs in this version.

- added: "behind your back" reference to asking for NPC whereabouts

When asking the whereabouts of an NPC who is close by but not seen by the player character, the people will now point out that the target NPC is "...over there, just behind your back.".

- changed: pushing allowed to locations not visible to the player character

You can now [p]ush items around regardless of the location being visible or not. This helps to maintain character's daily life also in the pitch dark low visibility conditions.

- fixed: pausable crafts in process occasionally disappearing when finishing crafting something else beside them

- fixed: possibility to remove hafts from sickles

This was mistakenly allowed. Sickles are a special case and not yet included in the hafting mechanics.

- fixed: skin item duplication if tanning got cancelled at the requirements dialog

- fixed: villagers occasionally wandering impractically far from the village area

- fixed: low quality hafts not degrading the finished hafted weapon quality correctly

You pretty much always got fine hafted weapons even with the inferior hafts.

- fixed: "Of wolf and woman" quest related NPCs selection mess

There was a rare occurrence where the said quest dialogues didn't unfold properly due to the game engine picking the related NPCs incorrectly.

- fixed: paused craft remaining time checks

There was a rare condition where the remaining time to continue paused crafting was calculated incorrectly resulting in too fast completion of items at the end of the process.

- fixed: title song playback interruptions and cracks upon the game starting

The issue was with .ogg file loading. The troublesome audio is now loaded before the title song starts, and some .ogg audio has been replaced with .wav files.

- fixed: occasional white screen flash when player character goes to sleep

- fixed: attempt to haft an invalid target item made the item to disappear

- fixed: sickles weighted too much

Sickle item weight was mistakenly set to 3 lbs. This is fixed now, and sickles weigh 1 lbs as intended.


Cheers! urw_sage

A new version is at hand and for starters the Windows build goes live - now.
Linux and OS X builds will be released later this week if the workflow goes as expected.

Version 3.84 continues the ongoing transition to make all the crafting tasks pausable, features a good deal of related crafting requirement changes, adds BOWYER skill, introduces springs as a new water source and naturally offers a fistful of bugfixes too.

Here's the changelog:

Version 3.84 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: BOWYER skill

The bowyer skill is the ability and knowledge to make bows. Success in the skill determines the quality of the bows crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.
Needless to say, the available craftable bows now call for BOWYER skill in their crafting.

- added: craftable Longbow

You can craft a longbow from [M]ake menu under "Weapons" category.

- added: pausable weapon crafting

Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Weapons" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. These weapons are stone-axe, stone knife, club, javelin, spruce quick-bow, shortbow, longbow and bowstring.
To continue paused weapon crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. Like the other partially crafted items these will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- changed: crafting times and requirements of certain weapons

Now that the weapon crafting is pausable the production times of certain weapons have been increased to more reasonable levels. There are also minor changes in some material or tool requirements.
The changes are as follows, but bear in mind that these are the average set values and poor tools and/or skills may very well double the actual production times.

* Stone-axe

Stone-axe gets the greatest time increase in the production time as on average it now takes 50 hours to make one. That's a lot, but it really is a slow process to get the stone blade knapped and grinded out to shape that is efficient for felling trees.
Thus, stone-axe now becomes a survival option which you won't take up too lightly, but only in extreme need. Crafting a stone-axe now also needs another stone for final sharpening and polishing. Also, the previous requirement for rope has been replaced with strong cordage requirement. This means you can also use for example spruce withes for securing the head in place in the handle.

* Stone knife

It now takes 5 hours on average to make and also requires a stone for final sharpening.

* Javelin

It now takes 2 hour on average to make.

* Shortbow

It now takes 12 hours on average to make. The time increase is signficant compared to the earlier, and only a skilled bowyer with quality tools may manage to craft a shortbow in one day. With mediocre skills and tools it's a process of several work days.

* Longbow

It takes 18 hours on average to make. Thus, crafting a longbow is a process of several work days even for a skilled bowyer.

* Bowstring

It now takes 2 hours on average to make a bowstring from strands of yarn, and 30 minutes on average from a ready-made cord. When using a ready-made cord it often needs to be thinned down to suitable thickness so it's not just tying of the knots.

- added: BOWSTRING game encyclopedia (F1) entry

- updated: SHORTBOW and LONGBOW game encyclopedia (F1) entries

- added: pausable haft crafting

Crafting of the spear, axe and shovel hafts are now pausable tasks.

- added: pausable item trap crafting and loop snare batch production

Crafting of the paw-board fox trap and loop snare are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Paw-board

Crafting time has been increased to three hours.

* Loop snare

Loop snares can be made in batches of up to ten at a time, and it takes 20 minutes on average to craft one.

- added: pausable lumber items crafting

Crafting of the wooden stakes, staves and wood slats are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wood slat

Crafting time for a batch of 20 slats has been increased to 200 minutes.

* Wooden stake

Wooden stakes are made in sets of 5 pieces from one slender tree trunk. Previously it was 8 pieces from one trunk.

* Staff

When crafting staves one slender tree trunk can yield 3 proper straight staves. Previously it was one trunk for one staff.

- added: pausable utility article crafting for some items in the category

Crafting of the wooden shovel, birch-bark box and birch-bark basket are now pausable tasks. There are also some changes as follows;

* Wooden shovel

It is now made from a board instead of a wooden block. The crafting time has been incresed to 8 hours.

- added: springs

Springs are water sources bringing groundwater to the surface. They can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in maps at varying environments in size of one to three map tiles.
Springs do remain unfrozen even in the winter which makes them very useful water sources. A spring found in the wilderness may provide a great spot for a homestead for those who like to live in the forest further away from the lakes or rivers.
From now on the village water supply ponds are also springs. As they don't freeze they are easier to maintain and spot even in the winter.
MIGRATION NOTICE: Water supply ponds in the villages you have visited in the previous version will automatically turn into springs in this version.

- added: "behind your back" reference to asking for NPC whereabouts

When asking the whereabouts of an NPC who is close by but not seen by the player character, the people will now point out that the target NPC is "...over there, just behind your back.".

- changed: pushing allowed to locations not visible to the player character

You can now [p]ush items around regardless of the location being visible or not. This helps to maintain character's daily life also in the pitch dark low visibility conditions.

- fixed: pausable crafts in process occasionally disappearing when finishing crafting something else beside them

- fixed: possibility to remove hafts from sickles

This was mistakenly allowed. Sickles are a special case and not yet included in the hafting mechanics.

- fixed: skin item duplication if tanning got cancelled at the requirements dialog

- fixed: villagers occasionally wandering impractically far from the village area

- fixed: low quality hafts not degrading the finished hafted weapon quality correctly

You pretty much always got fine hafted weapons even with the inferior hafts.

- fixed: "Of wolf and woman" quest related NPCs selection mess

There was a rare occurrence where the said quest dialogues didn't unfold properly due to the game engine picking the related NPCs incorrectly.

- fixed: paused craft remaining time checks

There was a rare condition where the remaining time to continue paused crafting was calculated incorrectly resulting in too fast completion of items at the end of the process.

- fixed: title song playback interruptions and cracks upon the game starting

The issue was with .ogg file loading. The troublesome audio is now loaded before the title song starts, and some .ogg audio has been replaced with .wav files.

- fixed: occasional white screen flash when player character goes to sleep

- fixed: attempt to haft an invalid target item made the item to disappear

- fixed: sickles weighted too much

Sickle item weight was mistakenly set to 3 lbs. This is fixed now, and sickles weigh 1 lbs as intended.


Cheers! urw_sage

Springtime is busy time - both out in the nature and inside the development chambers. See, we're preparing for a new version release still this month, so let's have a sneak peek at upcoming features.

[h2]Pausable crafting proceeding strongly[/h2]
Quite a batch of craftable items will be using the recently featured pausable crafting mechanics allowing player character to have breaks and continue the crafting at will later on.
At this point the pausable crafting mechanics will cover all the weapons, lumber items, hafts and item traps such as paw-board fox trap and loop snare - and some more are likely to be added. So, with the upcoming version more than half of the craftable items will become pausable tasks. And in the version after that we'll likely manage to have all the crafts pausable as a default - and that's really something.

[h2]BOWYER skill and craftable longbow[/h2]
A new skill, bowyer, will be added. It's quite self-explanatory that this is the ability and knowledge to make bows and the craftable bows now call for bowyer skills in their crafting.
And longbow will be made available as a new craftable bow type for the player character.

[h2]Crafting adjustments[/h2]
With pausable crafting mechanics the production times of certain items can be now increased to more reasonable levels. With some items, eg. a longbow or stone-axe , the changes are quite significant and crafting them is a process of several workdays rather than several hours. Little tweaks to crafting requirements here and there can be also expected.

Continuing to craft a longbow in the making. For this character it will still take a few days with not the most suitable tools and mediocre bowyer skills.

[h2]Springs[/h2]
It's springtime for real! We'll be adding springs, water sources bringing groundwater to the surface, in the terrain generation. Springs can be found at varying environments on zoomed-in maps.
A spring found in the wilderness may provide a great spot for a homestead for those who like to live further away from the lakes or rivers. And moreover, springs remain unfrozen even in the winter.

A spring has been found in the wilderness! The water is cold and fresh.

So, for the next few versions we'll be working mostly on item related additions, and hope to have these released in decent pace. After that, when all the crafting is pausable and likely some other marvelous things have been accomplished as well, we'll move into adding new quests. Some of these will be small and casual, but some will be most exciting for the players who'd enjoy the presence of marriage or permanent companions. Let that be a sneak peek in advance further into this year's plans.

Cheers! Stay tuned. urw_sage

A quick hotfix update to remedy occasional lag on zoomed-in maps has been released.
This issue was met with version 3.83 most notably on Windows 11 systems.
No other changes. Cheers, and happy adventures! urw_sage

Version 3.83 is now released and live!

Bugs found during the beta period were very scarce, so for those who were playing the beta version already the changelog doesn't bring any additions. The most notable features in version 3.83 are weapon/tool hafting and the haft wear out mechanics, and pausable arrowmaking and tanning.

This version has also undergone upgrade of SDL and SDL_mixer libraries, which will hopefully prove stable and clear few rarely encountered audio oddities with some system setups and sound cards/drivers.

.....aaaand here's the changelog:

Version 3.83 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: hafting spears, axes and shovels - and their separate heads and hafts

Axe and spear items now consist of two parts; the heads and hafts. Shovel item now also consists of two parts; the iron blade and haft. Wooden shovel is an exception as it's made out of single piece of wood.
Haft refers to the wooden handle or shaft, which can break over time or upon damage. When the haft breaks the separate head remains, and can be hafted again. Hafting is a process of attaching axe or spear head, or shovel blade to a new haft, making it a complete working weapon or tool.
For hafting, there are now new craftable "axe haft", "spear haft" and "shovel haft" items. In reality the haft shape and proportions do vary depending on the axe or spear type, but in order not to make things overly complex the two generic spear and axes hafts work for all the different types of spears and axes.
The different axe and spear heads now also exist as separate items. For the axes there are handaxe head, carving axe head, broad axe head, woodsman's axe head and so on. And for the spears there are kaumolais spear head, northern spear head, and so on. Blacksmiths still sell these weapons readily hafted so the heads aren't commonly found on their own.
When the haft breaks the head and broken haft do drop on the ground, along with pause prompted game message. You can then carve a new haft and haft the head to assemble a working weapon or shovel again. The broken hafts are of no use and are best utilized as firewood.
Crafting hafts and the process of hafting can be found from [M]ake menu under a new [H]afting category. The following self-explanatory options are available there:
* Axe haft
* Spear haft
* Shovel haft
* Haft a weapon or tool
* Remove the haft
The first three options are used to craft a new haft, followed by the actual hafting option to assemble a working weapon or shovel. You may also remove the haft at will for example to replace worn out haft early on. However, removing the haft may damage it a little bit so it's not recommended to do unless necessary.
Both crafting the haft and hafting task itself require CARPENTRY skills. The haft quality and success in hafting has significant impact on the finished weapon or tool usability. Poor hafting may result in lowering the item quality even below the head quality itself. Thus the finished axe, spear or shovel quality now refers to overall usability with the used haft, and the success in hafting. On the other hand, you may also manage to raise the finished weapon quality higher than the head quality itself with a perfect and perfectly fitted haft.
There are new game encyclopedia (F1) entries for the relevant topics: AXE HEAD, AHE HAFT, SPEAR HEAD, SPEAR HAFT, SHOVEL BLADE and SHOVEL HAFT

- added: hafts wearing out in use

Hafts of the axes, spears and shovels now wear out in use, and will eventually break.
Axe hafts wear out in all the regular woodworking and timbercraft tasks where they are used. Shovel hafts and wooden shovels wear out in digging pits and preparing the soil. Spear hafts mostly wear out in combat.
In all the cases the wear is relative to the task the weapon or tool is used for. Thrusting a spear into a large moving animal such as elk or bear may put the haft under serious strain. Likewise, felling big timber is more strenuous for the axe haft than doing casual carving.
The haft wear out level can be noticed in character's inventory with the progressing wear bar.
Hafts are in the risk of breaking apart when they've worn to about 80% of the original condition. Accumulating haft damage can also lead to decrease in the axe or spear overall quality.

- modding add: new crafting requirement entries

{Hammering tool}
This defines requirement for a tool that is used to hammer things in place. It's used in hafting an axe.
The butt of an axe is commonly used as a hammering tool, but clubs, pieces of firewood or stones can be also used as a substitute.

{Axe or carving knife}
This defines requirement for a tool used in rough woodworking and carving. It's used in crafting hafts to carve out their rough shape from a slender tree trunk.
Axe is the preferred tool here and always the best option, but usage of knives is allowed as a substitute - even though they make the task significantly slower.
The common woodworking axes such as handaxe, carving axe, and woodman's axe are the most suitable ones. If a knife is used the sturdy ones such as skramasaksi, northern knife, kaumolais knife or hunting knife work the best.

Both of these entries can be utilized in diy_*.txt and biy_*.txt modding at will.

- modding add: [nowear] and [wearpct:num] tags to specify haft wear out accumulation rate

Axe, spear and shovel hafts wear out also when they are used as tools in crafting or building tasks.
There are these two new tags to customize the wear accumulation rate as the intensity of tool usage varies depending on the task.

[nowear] tag means that the used tool doesn't wear out at all.
[wearpct:num] specifies custom wear out percentage rate (1-100) in relation to the highest rate (100) where tool is used intensely during the whole task.

Examples:

{Axe} [nowear]
Here an axe is needed, preferably a carving axe, and it doesn't wear out at all in the said crafting/building task.

{Cutting_weapon} [wearpct:25]
Here a cutting weapon, preferably an axe, is needed. It wears out in 25% rate compared to the continuous intense axe work. Maybe the axe is needed only 25% of the time in this crafting/building task.

- removed: hard staff and throwing axe

These two weapons have been removed for being somewhat anachronistic and not that important.

- added: pausable tanning

Tanning is now pausable task allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused tanning simply use the tanning option again standing beside the partially finished item.
This applies only to the last and most laborous stage of the tanning process which is softening the hide with a beater. The preceeding, faster processes of cleaning the skin need to be done in one go.
Partially tanned hides will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: pausable arrowmaking and arrow shaft crafting

Making arrows and arrow shafts is now pausable task allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused arrowmaking simply use the same option to make arrows or arrow shafts again standing beside the said partially finished items.
For blunt arrows this means using [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Blunt arrow" option. For all the other kind of tipped arrows use [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Arrow" option. And for the arrow shafts you would naturally use [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Arrow shaft".
Like the other partially crafted items these will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- changed: maximum number of arrows or arrow shafts to craft in one batch

The maximum arrow or arrow shaft batch production quantity is increased up to 10 at one go.

- changed: arrow shaft crafting time

Now that the making of arrow shafts is pausable the time required to craft one is increased to more reasonable level of 90 minutes.

- changed: blunt arrow crafting requirements

Now that the blunt arrow making is pausable the time required to craft one is increased to more reasonable level of 2 hours.

Number of slender tree trunks required is also modified so that you can craft three blunt arrows out of one slender tree trunk.
Blunt arrows are now also prone to outcome quality modifiers, so your tools and expertise determines if the finished blunt arrows will be curved or superior or something in between.

- modding add: [yield:num] tag

[yield:num] tag is used to specify for how many produced items the single raw material entry is enough for. Ie. how many finished items it can yield. The tag is used in diy_glossary.txt for making blunt arrows as follows:

{Slender trunk} [yield:3]

This means one slender tree trunk can yield three produced items ie. blunt arrows. So, for example to craft six blunt arrows you would need 2 trunks. Crafting 7-9 blunt arrows you would need 3 trunks, and so on.

- enhanced: rendering of the terrain type images

Terrain type images on zoomed-in map are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the images appear more crisp and clear.

- fixed: being able to fish facing away from the water

- fixed: companions performing some tasks too fast

Due to miscalculations in companion time counters they managed to complete some tasks, eg. felling trees, all too fast. The issue was mostly noticed in woodworking tasks, but you may find some other companion performed tasks also to appear in slower more reasonable pace now.

- fixed: villagers not reacting if you attacked a hired companion of their own group in their own village

- fixed: villagers accepting too many items if they were offered in one go during the first trade

- fixed: terrain type image not updating when climbing across terrain boundary

This happened only when using the climbing skill.

- fixed: the fish splashing and spawning despite of the ice

Occasionally you might find fish splashing in the water even at locations with ice cover. This happened if the water froze again after the spawning had already started in the open water.

- fixed: Bewitched Wolf quest not generating correctly

This quest might have been missing for few versions, so enjoy if it now comes your way.

- fixed: triggered item traps remaining in set status

This might rarely happen with loop snares and paw-boards. The graphics also show the traps being set and ready, despite of the fact that they were actually triggered already.

- fixed: placing any items to a pine tree with bear skull produced the bear skull placement message



Cheers! urw_sage

The work with new version, 3.83, is soon finished and we hereby ease the anticipation with an early beta release for Windows. Thus, version 3.83 beta for Windows is now available as a beta branch you need to opt-into at your Steam Library. This will be explained below.

Once the Windows version stability is confirmed, wrapping things up for all the supported operating systems will follow and we aim to have have 3.83 stable version released this month.

The most notable additions in version 3.83 are weapon/tool hafting and the haft wear out mechanics, and pausable arrowmaking and tanning. Find full changelog at the end of this post, but first let's have a closer look at the hafting and haft wear out mechanics.

[h2]Hafting spears, axes and shovels - and their separate heads and hafts[/h2]

Axe and spear items now consist of two parts; the heads and hafts. Shovel item now also consists of two parts; the iron blade and haft. Haft refers to their wooden handle or shaft, which can break over time or upon damage. Hafting is a process of attaching axe or spear head, or shovel blade to a new haft, making it a complete working weapon or tool.

Both crafting the haft and hafting task itself requires CARPENTRY skills. In this list of hafting requirements there's a new "hammering tool" entry. Axe haft needs to be pounded tightly into the eye of the head, so a hammering tool is required. The butt of another axe, if available, is the best option but you can do this hammering also with a club, solid firewood or even a stone.

[h2]Hafts wearing out in use[/h2]

Hafts of the axes, spears and shovels now wear out in use, and will eventually break.
Axe hafts wear out in all the regular woodworking and timbercraft tasks where they are used. Shovel hafts and wooden shovels wear out in digging pits and preparing the soil. Spear hafts mostly wear out in combat.
In all the cases the wear is relative to the task the weapon or tool is used for. Thrusting a spear into a large moving animal such as elk or bear may put the haft under serious strain. Likewise, felling big timber is more strenuous for the axe haft than doing casual carving.

Here's a bear fighting scene with a companion called Aimo.
Aimo's spear haft breaks at the critical moment, but he wisely proceeds to grab the fallen spear head.
If need be, spear heads can be used as sort of substitute for a weapon, although far less effectively than a proper spear.

[h2]How to opt-into 3.83 (beta) for Windows[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
  
• The access code for this release is urwbeta383win
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.83 (beta) appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  

[h3]The best of 2024 to all of you who roam the unreal world![/h3]

We'll open the new year with a glimpse into what's cooking in the development chambers at the moment. And that is, hafting of the axes and spears is underway.
It's relatively complex and fundamendal addition and I guess we'll be putting out a new release when it's all finished. There's still lots of work to do, but here's a first sneak preview of the upcoming hafting mechanics.

So, in the next release axe and spear items will consist of two parts; heads and hafts.
Haft refers to their wooden handle or shaft, which can break over time or upon damage.
When a haft breaks the separate head remains, and can be hafted again. Hafting is a process of attaching axe or spear head to a new haft, making it a complete working weapon again.

Now let's meet our test character Terhi and let her show how the hafting in UnReal World goes.


One day the haft of her trusty woodsman's axe broke leaving the head lying on the ground.
For all the different axes and spears their heads now also exist as separate items.
Blacksmiths still sell these weapons readily hafted, so the heads aren't commonly found until the axe or spear haft breaks.



Crafting the hafts and the process of hafting can be found from [M]ake menu under a new [H]afting category. The first two options are used to craft a new haft, and the latter for actual hafting to assemble a working weapon with the head and the haft.
Terhi now proceeds to craft a new axe haft.



Both crafting the haft and hafting task itself requires CARPENTRY skills. Terhi has managed to craft a fine axe haft, and then she proceeds to actual hafting.
In this list of hafting requirements there's a new "hammering tool" entry. Axe haft needs to be pounded tightly into the eye of the head, so a hammering tool is required.
The butt of another axe, if available, is the best option but you can do this hammering also with a club, solid firewood or even a stone.



The hafting is done and she managed to assemble a decent woodsman's axe. Let the timberwork continue!


The haft quality and success in hafting has significant impact on the finished axe or spear usability. Poor hafting may result in lowering the weapon quality even below the head quality itself. The finished axe or spear quality thus now refers to overall usability with the used haft, and the success in hafting.
On the other hand, you may also manage to raise the finished weapon quality higher than the head quality itself with a perfect and perfectly fitted haft.

So, this is how 2024 starts feature wise. Stay tuned. urw_sage

These are future features - not yet functional in current version 3.82.

The year is nearing its end - so let us send you our winter season's greetings with this post.

Firstly, we wish you all the best with the festivities and holiday season you might have at hand,
and happy new year!
Then, as a season's speciality let us entertain you with little something recreational from the real world at present-day Savo.

The winter has come, and for devs like us it means the balance between coding and cross-country skiing must carefully maintained. So, a week ago Erkka (co-designer) came over for a visit - and we went exploring the real world on skis.



Sami (UnReal World creator) with the red hat, Erkka (UnReal World co-designer) with the green hat.

Over the years, we've found ourselves doing many kind of media works more or less related to the game world or inspired by the iron-age culture. And now, quite spontaneously, we ended up doing small stop-motion animation - and then thought of publishing it as 2023 season's greetings at .
There's more, and surely more sophisticated content to explore, if the channel wasn't familiar to you already. We call it Tanssivat tontut in finnish, which would translate as Dancing goblins or Dancing household spirits in english.
https://youtu.be/du2pkQUN9Fg?si=aOPZkYand2qcKmFW

And lastly, for myself the last weeks have been more busy with horseback riding and archery than coding. In early December I did three horseback archery demonstrations at different stables which required quite a bit of both time and energy. But hey, sometimes one has to ride a horse to endure extended still sitting periods in front of the computer. And maybe it's good for one to try out the bow for real if he intends to simulate archery in the game. So, this also falls into category of in the real world at present-day Savo. Let the bow skill speculations start.
https://youtu.be/oPaZKJluLDQ?si=vAzUS2KX986sx7ux

Let's see you in 2024, with all sort of new achievements, features and adventures to follow in the real and unreal world.
Cheers!

Steam Autumn sale has begun and we welcome new adventurers into the far north with a generous discount until 28th of November.

And with the Autumn Sale also the Steam Awards 2023 nominations have started.
In case of UnReal World, we really can't help but to pick "Labor of Love" as our nomination category.


Outside the development chambers it's hardly autumn anymore.
The days grow shorter and shorter, and soon after the noon you can already start to prepare for the dusk.
It's 31 years of UnReal World development behind - and still no end in sight.
It's some four more months of snow and freezing temperatures ahead - and it's all good.

That's all folks. You are welcomed to enter and invited to nominate.
:urw_sage: :urw_fire: :urw_elk:

Greetings to those who roam, or are about to roam the unreal world!

We're happy to announce a new version release:
Version 3.82 is now live and released for Windows, Linux and OS X.

This version brings you a whole new fishing method, bunch of fish life improvements and a basket of crucial bugfixes. Find the changelog below.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.82 changelog

Version: 3.82

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: retrievable broken off arrowheads

Occasionally arrows do break upon hitting a target, and now the arrowheads can be also occasionally, but not always, retrieved and re-used. Only the arrows of decent or higher quality will loose the arrowheads in retrievable condition and the arrowhead itself almost always suffers from the quality degrade.
If the arrow breaks from hitting a non-living target you will find the arrowhead on the ground together with the broken arrow item. If the arrow breaks upon hitting a living target the broken arrow part will drop on the ground and the arrowhead gets stuck into target's body. These stuck arrowheads are not visible to the player character when looking at NPCs/creatures, but can be found and retrieved only from the target's dead carcass.

- added: lippo fishing, a new fishing method[/b]

Lippo is a kind of a dip net with a long pole used for catching fish from rivers and shallow waters. Lippo fishing is foremostly practised only at certain times of the year; when the fish to be caught are migrating upstream to their spawning locations, and during the active spawning period.
Fishing with a lippo in the rivers and rapids is done by standing on rocks in the river. The location is often suitable when there are several rocks around as these are the usual places where both resting and spawning river fish are around and can be caught. Additionally, a lippo can also be used from the shore if the spawning fish are noticed by the shoreline. The lippo is lowered into the water, down to the bottom, and carefully dragged around in order to catch resting or spawning fish into its hoop.
Start using your lippo either by [a]pplying the lippo from the inventory or using the FISHING skill.

- added: LIPPO encyclopedia (F1) entry

- added: craftable lippo

You can craft a lippo from [M]ake menu under [F]ishing category. A lippo is constructed in such a way that it has a wooden hoop into which multiple small birch saplings are tied to. These saplings are tied together at their open ends, so that they form a net like construction around the hoop. The hoop with this net is then fixed to a long wooden pole.
The applicable character skill for crafting a lippo is NETMAKING.

- added: spawning periods for the relevant fish species

The following fish now have their unique spawning periods; pike, bream, salmon and lavaret. During the spawning period the fish gather up at their species specific spawning locations. This can be then taken advantage of by spearfishing or using newly featured lippo fishing.

- added: splashing and water ripples from the fish activity

As the fish spawn in shallow waters they do splash in noticeable way, and there are now splashing sounds to be heard and round water ripples to be seen indicating the fish activity. These are essential cues in order to find the actual fish spawning locations.
There's splashing audio to be heard but you are also notified with a game message. For example "You hear a splash from the east." or "You notice a lavaret splashing in the water." And then there are modestly animated water ripples, a new visual effect that can be noticed in the water where the fish activity has taken place.

- added: encyclopedia (F1) entries for PIKE, BREAM, SALMON and LAVARET

You'll find information for example about their spawning periods and habitats, and the related fishing means.

- improved: spearfishing

It still remains possible to catch lone roaming fish with luck and patience, but now the spearfishing can be considered most effective for catching the spawning fish.
Upon spearfishing you will be now notified about the ongoing fish spawning periods. The messages will tell if the chosen location might be good considering the spawning fish, or if the spawning might be going on elsewhere. These are hints to consider in order to find a good spot, but you are naturally free to try out your spearfishing luck also regardless of the spawning periods and locations.
There are also some changes in the spearfishing messages thorough the process.

- changed: rain visual effect slightly softened with randomized alpha blending

- added: ROUNDSHIELD encyclopedia (F1) entry

- updated: FISHING ROD encyclopedia (F1) entry with a bit of baiting information

- fixed: not being able to use withes as tying equipment when crafting skis

- fixed: encyclopedia tooltips in the inventory not displayed for items with additional item part descriptions

Tooltips were missing for items such as "Hunting bow with no string" or "Fishing rod with iron hook". Now the base items (ie. "Hunting bow" and "Fishing rod") are properly parsed in these cases too and the tooltips displayed accordingly.

- fixed: Old Man's Punt quest dialogue confusions

The quest progression dialogue had gotten tangled with blacksmith related dialogue.

- fixed: NPC archers could shoot arrows from beyond player character's visible range

- fixed: NPC archers could use and shoot back the arrows that had originally hit them

- fixed: blacksmith product price estimation oddities

Quest rewards were discounted from the final blacksmith product prices, but the blacksmiths didn't bring this up in their dialogue which caused confusion and wrong estimations. This was most notable when quest reward would compensate for the whole price and resulted in blacksmith trade preference being blanked (ie. "..give me your .")
Now blacksmiths will speak about how much the possible reward compensates, and give items truly for free with applicable rewards.
Blacksmiths might also have given wrong price estimation for batch of product because of not calculating the number of finished items properly.

- fixed: blacksmiths failing to produce ordered items

Blacksmiths often failed to produce ordered items because of carrying too much load. This prevented the ordered items to be added in their inventory. Blacksmiths kept building up the excess load because the items they got as a payment weren't never removed and restocked from their inventory. Now blacksmiths will restock their inventory before attempting to carry the finished ordered item.

- fixed: usage of TEXTILECRAFT from the skills window or via hotkey not working for migrated characters

- fixed: TEXTILECRAFT skill not improving for migrated characters

- fixed: Chat command causing fade to black after being forcefully woken up by an NPC



Cheers! urw_sage

Here we go with a brief development news about what's bubbling under at the moment.
Well, a good bunch fishing related additions, we can tell you.

There will be improvements to some old fishing methods and a completely new form of fishing to be featured. And to have it all done with our desired ambition we'll also feature spawning periods and habitats for the different species of fish. And these can be then taken advantage of with the old and new fishing forms.

It's quite a sidetracking, snowballing bunch of additions, but slowly coming together so nicely that we can briefly highlight it already.


Now pikes, breams, salmons, trouts and lavarets (at least) will be given their spawning periods and habitats. Gathering of the spawning fish can be then taken advantage of with suitable fishing means.
For example pikes will come to spawn in early spring at shallow shoreline waters with rich vegetation.
During that time the spearfishing from the shore can be quite succesful.
As we know, spearfishing is already an existing fishing method in the game, but now it will become a bit more detailed for example with information given related to ongoing spawning periods and the chosen location.


Ingir proceeds with spearfishing and the game notifies about the chosen location being good considering the ongoing pike spawning period.


Lippo is a certain kind of dip net with a very long handle, and it was used in special kind of fishing at rivers and rapids. It is a new fishing tool in the game that
can be crafted by the player character, and it will be used in this newly featured form of fishing.


Ingir has arrived at the rapids with an intention to craft herself a lippo.


Lippo fishing was practised especially when the certain fish, salmons or lavarets for example, gathered at the rivers to spawn. But lippo can be also used to catch roaming river fish outside their spawning period too. In this fishing method the lippo is casted into the water, down at the bottom of the river, and then moved carefully in order to scoop the fish into its net. The roaming fish in the rivers and rapids will occasionally rest beside the rocks and skerries and these are the locations where lippo needs to be used.


Ingir needed to row with a punt to reach a skerry in the rapids. Maybe there are fish resting behind the neighbouring rocks, she thinks and reaches out to pick up the lippo.

Just a quick briefing.
There more to this.
Stay tuned.

Version 3.81 is now built, released and live for all the supported operating systems.
This version is now the default branch and if you have automatic updates on your game will update automatically.

This version is mostly about craftable and repairable fishing nets, preliminary introduction of pausable crafting and some bugfixes. Find full changelog at the end of this post, and now let's highlight the most exciting addition...

[h2]Craftable and repairable fishing nets[/h2]

Now it's possible to both craft a net from the scratch, and to repair worn-out nets. These are both pausable tasks allowing you to finish them in parts as you please. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.



Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.



Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. For the history and realism sake a good use of written sources along with actually interviewing old net makers were carried out to come up with the many values and mechanics. And still there's a room to add some advanced fishing net care and maintenance features in the future. It might be interesting for some if we opened up our research and field studies later on, but here's just one curiosity:

There's a tool called netting needle which has been essential in netmaking. It's a tool the player characters can craft in the game as well. In our interviews with a certain old net maker one question was: "We're the nets ever made by hand alone, without a netting needle, and is it even viable?"

Ville, a real person in real world - an old fisherman - just kept staring for a really, really long time and said "Everyone had their own netting needle." Other interviewees also confirmed that netting needles were always needed, even when repairing the nets, and during the fishing season people would carry them around just in case. Well, the game mechanics allow netmaking without a netting needle too, but you will only find it impractically slow.


Netting needle.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.81 changelog

Version: 3.81

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: craftable fishing net

It is now possible to make a fishing net by the player character. The option can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu.
Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.
Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. In the game making a net is newly featured pausable task allowing you to finish it in parts as you please.

- added: NETMAKING skill

Netmaking is a skill for weaving and constructing fishing nets. Success in netmaking determines the quality of the nets crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.

- added: pausable crafting

In this version we are introducing pausable crafting for a few selected items. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.

Crafts that can be currently paused are:

* Net

* Chop felled tree into blocks

* Split firewood from a block

* Split a trunk into boards

With the pausable timbercraft options you can now also use unhandy and inferior tools eg. stone-axe in board making as there's no upper limit of how much time can be used to get the work done.

Pausable crafting works similarly to pausable building. You can cancel the process at will, and then continue at will. The crafting will be continued when you try to make the said item again standing beside the partially finished item. For example, if you try to [M]ake a fishing net beside a partially crafted net the crafting continues.
Partially crafted items will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: different tile graphics for a set net

Tile graphics for a set fishing net is now different resembling its float line on top of the water.

- updated: "Net" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- changed: the weight and price of the net item

Both have been increased. The weight because of the rock weights taken into account, and the price because of the true workload.

- added: netting needle, a new item

Netting needle is a wooden tool used to weave fishing nets. It can be crafted by the player character from [M]ake menu "Fishing" category. Netting needle allows weaving the net conveniently with proper knots and tight mesh of uniform size.

- added: repair worn-out nets

The option to "Repair worn-out net" can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu. Repairing a net is also pausable task and can be cancelled and continued at will. To continue paused net repair works the same as continuing paused net crafting; if you use the repair option again beside the partially repaired net the crafting will continue.

- added: harvesting pine bark

Pine bark can be harvested from big pine trees all-year round. Pine bark chunks are used used in making of net floats.

- added: "Bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: ball of birch-bark strip as village resource

Villagers now gather and stock balls of birch-bark strip. These can be then traded for by the player characters if need be. Birch-bark availability in villages is based on the culture, and it naturally gets restocked only when the birch-bark harvesting season is on.

- updated: "Birch-bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: timbercraft product quantities affected by the used tool, ie. an axe

When making boards, blocks of wood or firewood you'll get fewer products when using an unhandy axe for the said tasks. The effect is most notable when the axe is far from preferred one, eg. making boards with a stone-axe.

- adjusted: blacksmiths titled as masters always produce masterwork goods

There was a small skill range where blacksmiths titled as masters produced fine, but not masterwork goods. This has been adjusted so that now masters always produce masterwork goods.

- fixed: using STEALTH from skills menu prompted nothing

Now it says the skill is automatically used when necessary. That is, when your character gets [h]iding.

- fixed: firemaking failing at fertilized locations

Fire data couldn't be properly set to locations with fertilization data.

- fixed: some diy/biy descriptions corrupting the material requirement text output

Adding descriptive texts eg. '+(needed for this and that)' to some diy/biy entries caused text output corruption in the displayed list of required materials. This was noticed with some cordage at least.

- fixed: math failures when using withes (on the ground) in constructions

There was a rare occasion where using withes on the ground might cause math failures to the number of materials used or required. This was noticed with building a fence gate, but might have occurred elsewhere too.

- fixed: animals leaving droppings far too often after 255 game days

Yep, it was char<>int kind of mistake in the dropping interval calculations.

- fixed: some encumbrance penalty calculations

Excess penalty didn't always capped at 100%, and the weight of worn clothes you could carry without penalty wasn't always calculated correctly.

- fixed: making stone arrowheads not allowing using stones on the ground for grinding

- fixed: wading mode text alignment not centered

- fixed: repeat the last action display for arrow and bowstring was blank



Cheers! urw_sage

In the midst of summer schedule challenges we're hereby releasing version 3.81 first for Windows and follow with Linux and OS X builds in early august.

Version 3.81 for Windows is available as a beta branch you need to opt-into at your Steam Library. This will be explained below.

This version is mostly about craftable and repairable fishing nets, preliminary introduction of pausable crafting and some bugfixes. Find full changelog at the end of this post, and now let's highlight the most exciting addition...

[h2]Craftable and repairable fishing nets[/h2]

Now it's possible to both craft a net from the scratch, and to repair worn-out nets. These are both pausable tasks allowing you to finish them in parts as you please. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.



Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.



Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. For the history and realism sake a good use of written sources along with actually interviewing old net makers were carried out to come up with the many values and mechanics. And still there's a room to add some advanced fishing net care and maintenance features in the future. It might be interesting for some if we opened up our research and field studies later on, but here's just one curiosity:

There's a tool called netting needle which has been essential in netmaking. It's a tool the player characters can craft in the game as well. In our interviews with a certain old net maker one question was: "We're the nets ever made by hand alone, without a netting needle, and is it even viable?"

Ville, a real person in real world - an old fisherman - just kept staring for a really, really long time and said "Everyone had their own netting needle." Other interviewees also confirmed that netting needles were always needed, even when repairing the nets, and during the fishing season people would carry them around just in case. Well, the game mechanics allow netmaking without a netting needle too, but you will only find it impractically slow.


Netting needle.

[h2]How to opt-into 3.81[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is urwversion381
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.81 appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  

Steam Summer Sale 2023 is on ...
...and we warmly welcome new adventurers into the Far North with a decent discount.

Simple as that. You know what to do.

It has already become our tradition also to post a summery set of photos from around the development chambers, so here we go again and into the summer we shall take you...


A quiet village road by the midnight leading past Sami's (UnReal World creator) development chambers. It's midsummer, nightless night and the sun barely sets at all.



Vasta hanging at sauna entry, waiting for the sweaty dev. Vasta is a kind of broom to beat and treat oneself with during sauna bath. Attention new adventurers; you can try that out in the game too.



It's calm on the surface, but despite of the summer there's some new code bubbling under. Stay tuned.


Midnight, midsummer. Attention new adventurers; the seasonal day and night cycle may blow your mind in the game too. The midwinter nights are far away, somewhere in the distant horizon, but you should be prepared.

urw_fox

The current version 3.80 is now few weeks fresh and working smoothly.
And we've been working on a new update for this summer.
So how about just a little update about the little something upcoming?
Very well. And let's do it with a sneak preview screenshots.

So, what is to be highlighted now and to be featured in the next release is ...

[h2]Fishing nets craftable by the player character[/h2]

Player characters will be able to make fishing nets.
Thinking of the mere amount of yarn alone it's not all too simple craft to collect the material for.
You'll also need rocks for the weights, and birch-bark to wrap the weights with and to make floats.
And then there is also a special tool required ...


Netting needle. That's the tool you'll need. It's a wooden tool for weaving the net with proper knots. As a curiosity for history enthusiasts, one of the oldest known fishing nets in the world, the Antrea Net dated to 8540 BCE, was laced with knots that indicate use of netting needle. The same kind of fishing net knots have been used by Baltic Finns in much, much later dates. UnReal World takes place around 800-1200 CE.

Netting needle


Net weight - a decent size rock wrapped in birch-bark.

[h2]Introducing pausable crafting[/h2]

In the next screenshot our character has started weaving the net.
And after 6 hours of work the progress bar hasn't even reached the tenth of the remaining time...


Now what's that about?
Well, that means in the next version we'll be also introducing pausable crafting for making a net - and for few other tasks. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have a break in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been tested properly it will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting. Which will make quite a difference, you'll see.

So making a net won't be a task of few hours, or even few days, but can easily last for a week or more.
After four or five days of weaving the net our character takes a look at the half-finished work in progress...



Luckily for us all, the upcoming version is already more than half-finished by now.
July 2023 seems like good month for yet another release. urw_sage

You know, there is Enormous Elk - an indie production team founded by Sami Maaranen (UnReal World creator) and Erkka Lehmus (UnReal World co-designer).
Then, there is UnReal World - by Enormous Elk.
And now there is also Ancient Savo by Enormous Elk, as Erkka's side-project game has reached its public beta release.

[h2]Ancient Savo[/h2]

Ancient Savo is an open-ended resource-management game, with no combat elements.
Cold, hunger and accidents are your only enemy.
Both 2D and 3D graphics, you can freely switch between them.

Play as a settler family in 1200CE Eastern Finland, in a region called Savo.
Build your home in pristine woodlands.
Live off the land, raise a family, send your adult offspring to start homesteads of their own.

Ancient Savo is released and available here at Itch.Io.

See the beta version trailer here:
https://youtu.be/1m18A9_RKsw

[hr][/hr]


Ancient Savo draws a good deal of inspiration from the same pool as UnReal World - the roots, cultural history and ways of life of the ancient Finns.
It is a different game independently continuing on its own path - as does the UnReal World.
However, familiriaties, similarities and overlapping ideas within these two may supplement
one's gaming experience in these two titles.

Version 3.80 has reached stable stage and is now released and live for every adventurer out there.

Those who were playing the beta version will discover new features with the improved arrowmaking and spotting blacksmith orders on the map of known areas (F6).
For those who only now enter the version 3.80 it should be noted that the most fundamental addition in this version is featuring the NPC blacksmiths and the process of ordering metalworks from them.

Let's take a look at the changelogs - starting with a few screenshots to highlight the latest additions since the beta.





[h3]Version: 3.80 changelog[/h3]

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

The latest additions since the 3.80 beta:

- added: pending blacksmith orders shown on the map (F6)

When viewing the map of known areas (F6) villages with pending blacksmith orders are now marked with a white circle. Clicking the location will also show the pending order briefing along with the general village information.
For example:
"Sartolais village at Darkwoods.
Blacksmith order, shovel, placed 5 days ago."
And when the order has been claimed the markers will get removed. You still need to decide by yourself when to go claim the order as it's not told when it's ready, but only when the order was placed.

- added: ARROWS category to [M]ake menu

This category contains the arrowmaking related handcraft options. These options were previously under WEAPONS category. There are also several new options related to the arrowmaking improvements. These are explained below.

- improved: arrowmaking with new arrow parts

Arrows are now assembled from separate arrow parts which you need obtain or craft beforehand. The new arrow parts and improved arrowmaking procedure goes as follows:

* arrow shafts

Arrow shaft is a new item. Arrow shafts need to be crafted separately, after which they can be used in arrowmaking. Now the arrow shafts need to be made of either leaf tree saplings or wood slats, which is a new lumber item explained later on. Straightness of the shaft is very important in order to make fine arrows so the quality of the finished shaft matters a lot in the arrowmaking.

* arrowheads

Arrowheads are now unique items and need to be obtained or crafted separately, after which they can be used in arrowmaking.
There are two new iron arrowhead items called "broadhead" and "arrowhead". These can be obtained from the village blacksmiths.
There are also new "stone arrowhead" and "bone arrowhead" items which can be crafted by the player character.

* arrowmaking

As mentioned before, arrowmaking options can be found under "Arrows" category in the [M]ake menu. When you want to craft a tipped arrow there is only one generic "Arrow" option for that. This single option is used to craft an arrow with any type of arrowhead, except the blunt arrow. The arrowheads to use is selected first and this determines the following requirements and if the outcome is (a regular) arrow, broadhead arrow, stone tipped arrow or bone tipped arrow.
There are naturally also options for crafting the arrow shafts and arrowheads. And those are what you should go for first, and then assemble the arrow from the parts you've gotten.
There are also new game encylopedia (F1) entries for the new arrow parts; arrow shaft, broadhead and arrowhead.

* blunt arrow crafting requirements

In addition to new features there are also changes to old arrowmaking options, such as making a blunt arrow. Blunt arrows are now crafted from a slender tree trunk. One trunk is enough for several arrows, if you want to craft a batch of them at once. Moreover, blunt arrows don't need feathers anymore and thus become the simplest arrows to craft. Historically there's been both kind of blunt arrows, with and without feathers, but with enough challenge brought in with the new arrow parts we've now chosen them to be featherless. Blunt arrow graphics and game encyclopedia (F1) entry has been updated accordingly.

- added: wood slat, a new lumber item

Slat is a narrow flat piece of wood split from a board. As mentioned above, slats are used as raw material for making arrow shafts. Slats can be crafted via "Lumber" category in the [M]ake menu.

- added: arrowhead and broadhead as new blacksmith products

As briefly mentioned above these two types of iron arrowheads can be now obtained from the blacksmiths. All the blacksmiths everywhere can make arrowheads.

- fixed: entering fortified village from the west located the character on the wall

- fixed: NPCs might build a fire on prepared soil

- fixed: game freezes with the sequence disabling background music and quitting

The additions featured already 3.80 beta release:

- added: blacksmith NPCs and ordering metalworks from them

Blacksmith is a new NPC type who you can meet in the villages. Blacksmiths can produce different kind of metalworks on demand. This is a fundamental addition which will make a big difference to obtaining iron tools and weapons.
Blacksmith products are culturally dependent and can range from fishhooks to swords. There's also variety among the levels of blacksmith expertise. All the blacksmiths can produce the basic tools needed for the every day life of their local culture, but only the few talented ones can forge more demanding items, like a sword.

* All the cultures do have blacksmiths, but their areal availability varies. Not every village has a blacksmith, but in general there are several within each cultural area.

* You can ask villagers if there's a blacksmith around. The option for this is found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode. If their blacksmith is a highly skilled one villagers are proud to let you know that right away.

* Ordering something from a blacksmith is initiated by talking to them. Ordering options become available upon greeting a blacksmith, or can be found from "Ask for help/company" chat mode.

* Blacksmiths vary in their expertise, but all of them can produce at least decent quality items. The more talented blacksmiths can produce fine or even masterwork items. They will let you know the level of their expertise and outcome of their goods loud and clear.

* Not all the blacksmiths will produce the same items, and the cultural variety makes the most difference there. Also, only the few most talented blacksmiths will be able to forge the most demanding items, such as swords, helmets or specialized knives such as Kaumolais knife or Skramasaksi.

* It should be clear already that metal armours are not really known or used by the local cultures, so blacksmiths do not produce those - except for helmets. So the availability of NPC blacksmiths doesn't change the fact that metal armours do remain as rare imported goods, as they should be.

* Of the swords, a few talented blacksmiths may produce broadswords and shortswords but the other types of swords found in the game are of foreign origin and remain to be rarely found as imported goods. The northern peoples aren't familiar with swords at all, so to find a sword forging blacksmith one has to seek among the wealthy western cultures, or at Kaumo and Reemi.

* You can order one item at a time, which will be payed for after it's ready. Upon confirming your order you can ask what the blacksmith would like as a payment from your current inventory, but you don't have to have enough goods for the payment yet upon placing an order. When the order is then being bartered for, even if you wouldn't have enough goods at first you can cancel the trade and come back to try again with more wealth.

* Meanwhile your order is being made you can ask the blacksmith how is it coming along. They will give you an estimation about the remaining production time. Depending on the item the production times vary from few days to a month.

* If you don't come claim your order within half a year it will be given away. This may naturally lower your reputation among the blacksmith, and the village.

- added: BLACKSMITH game encyclopedia (F1) entry

Village blacksmiths and ordering their goods described in short.

- updated: culture and weapon related game encyclopedia (F1) entries

All the culture descriptions have been updated with relevant blacksmithing information and assorted corrections. Certain sword and axe descriptions have been updated to emphasize that those are foreign weapons not known by the local cultures.

- added: villagers can tell about sages and blacksmiths in the neighbouring villages

Upon asking villagers if there's a sage or blacksmith around, and if there is not, they will now let you if there's one in the vicinity or neighbouring villages. You will then be given directions how to reach the village in question.

- added: animal droppings

Certain animals now leave visible droppings, i.e. feces, that can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in map level. The droppings aren't featured for all the animals, but for those whose droppings are commonly noticeable and relevant. For example the following wild animals can leave droppings: hare, fox, badger, lynx, wolf, reindeer, elk and bear. The domestic animals such as sheep, cows and pigs also leave droppings.
The droppings of different species look a bit different, and upon looking at the droppings with game commands you will be told which animal's droppings it is.
For example: "You see here an elk droppings."
If the droppings are somewhat recent, less than a day old or so, you will be also be told that it's fresh droppings in question. Even if you wouldn't be able to specify their age the droppings work as an indicator of the animal presence at the area. The droppings may remain visible for weeks, but will eventually disappear.

- added: using animal droppings as fertilizer

Using animal droppings as fertilizer isn't necessary, but it's possible - if you feel like it. You can either spread droppings on the ground before preparing the soil and planting your crops, or spread them around after the planting. In the former method the droppings are then mixed in the soil upon preparing it, which is better.
The fertilizing effect is simplified and any amount of droppings will help a little. You don't have to fertilize every tile of the field, but just quite casually spread the droppings here and there.
This extra fertilizing helps plants to sprout and grow more succesfully, so somewhat higher yields can be expected from the fields fertilized with droppings. The effect isn't too dramatic though, since the slash-and-burn agriculture in use already includes fertilization with the ash from the burned woods.
When collecting droppings they appear under a new "Miscellanous" item category in character's inventory.

- added: SMOKING and FIREPLACE game encyclopedia (F1) entries

These will explain the smoking and fireplace heating up processes. In the cookery menu SMOKING encyclopedia entry dialog is shown at Smoking option.

- fixed: getting "carry too much" pick up restriction even if the character's inventory wasn't really full

- fixed: possibility of de-hairing bird skins, or already de-haired skins

It was redundant, and confusing. Now the game notifies you about this being needless.

- fixed: animals and NPCs drowning in shallow waters or small puddles

The issue made NPCs occasionally drown in village wells or puddles, or the animals drown in shallow shoreline waters if they were moving about there a lot eg. when tied in place.

- fixed: quest journal sometimes showing excess NPC portraits on the latter pages

- fixed: meadsweet flowers tile missing

- text corrections: a good bunch typos and grammar corrected, some messages rephrased.

Cheers! urw_sage

We're happy and excited to announce a beta release of UnReal World version 3.80.

Being a beta release some of the new features are still slightly under construction and there might be higher bug potential, but the essential new additions are completely playable and we haven't ran into stability issues either.

To play this beta version you need to opt-into it at your Steam Library. This will be explained below.

The most fundamental addition in 3.80 (beta) is featuring the NPC blacksmiths and the process of ordering metalworks from them. For those who haven't followed the earlier news about it we'll toss a selection of screenshots here, and you can find the full changelog later in this post.





[h2]How to opt-into 3.80 (beta)[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is version380beta
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.80 beta appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  

As announced earlier, we're working on a fundamental new addition of featuring blacksmith NPCs and possibility of ordering various iron goods from them.
Our hopes to have it all completed this month has proven slightly too optimistic, so the release will take place in April.

The good news is there's far more done, than still to be done. That is, if we manage to avoid time consuming sidetracking and spin-offing, as this is indeed an addition that can easily grow and expand with to-dos and ideas popping up here and there.

Let's continue with some dones and to-dos after a screenshot of a new NPC in town:


By now there's a solid groundwork done for the blacksmith NPCs;

• new NPCs tiles have been drawn
  
• blacksmith NPC generation is in effect
  
• blacksmith availability and their level of expertise among different cultures have been considered and in effect in the village generation
  
• chat options for talking about and ordering goods are set and working
  
• blacksmith item production works and ordered items get created
  
• chat options for asking about the ordered item and obtaining it when ready are working
  
• trading for the ordered item works
  

• go through the item lists and consider what items blacksmith will produce, considering their culture and expertise.
  
• set production times, and few other variables, for the items they produce.
  
• check everything
  
• check everything again
  
• test everything
  
• repeat the previous
  
• fix, adjust and possibly rewrite something
  
• final adjustments
  
• release
  

Dear adventurers,

it's time for a sneak peek into the few upcoming features.
We are hopeful and excited to have a new version released this very month, and these are the two major additions to expect.

Blacksmith NPCs and ordering their products

We'll be featuring blacksmith NPCs to be found in the villages, and possibility of ordering various iron goods directly from them. You order, they'll forge, and you will then pay and obtain the item when it's ready. This will be a fundamental new addition, and will also bring in numerous related spin-off features.



Not all the villages will have a blacksmith, but it will still be easier to find one to make you that knife, axe, sword or tool you need than to run through several storehouses in several villages in a search for a missing equipment. The available blacksmith products will vary a bit depending on the cultural areas, but all the blacksmiths can make at least the most basic and essential iron goods, tools and weapons.



Animal droppings - an indicator and a fertilizer

Smells like a new feature? Yes, indeed.

Certain animals will leave visible droppings, i.e. feces, that can be found in the terrain on zoomed-in map level. The droppings aren't featured for all the animals, but for those whose droppings are commonly noticeable and relevant. For example: hare, fox, badger, lynx, wolf, reindeer, elk and bear. The domestic animals such as sheep, cows and pigs also leave droppings.
The droppings of different species look a bit different, and upon looking at the droppings with game commands you will be told which animal's droppings it is. For example: "You see here an elk droppings."
If the droppings are somewhat recent, less than a day old or so, you will be also be told that it's fresh droppings in question. Even if you wouldn't be able to specify their age the droppings work as an indicator of the animal presence at the area.

What will be featured as well, is that the droppings can be used as a fertilizer on your fields.
It will be possible - if you feel like it - but not necessary, as the slash-and-burn cultivation already includes fertilization with the ash from the burned wood. However, the extra fertilization helps your crops to sprout and grow more successfully, so somewhat higher yields can be expected from the fields fertilized with droppings.

In these screenshots our adventurer has found bear and elks droppings - indicating the presence of the animals at the area.





Now we'll go forge some more code, and you can expect the release news in this month.

Cheers! urw_sage

Composed and performed by the devs themselves,
wished for by the adventurers,
the primeval musical journey into the far north is now available!

Enhanced UnReal World Soundtrack brings you the game musics plus three selected spin-off hit songs along the way in both .mp3 and lossless audio formats.

It's quite well known that Sami (creator) has been developing the game for ages, but he's been also been creating and performing variety of music for ages. And ever since the early days of UnReal World together with Erkka (co-designer) they've enjoyed and pursued creating primitive and traditional music together. And along that long way we've been constantly wished for more musical works,
or even a compilation album. So, here you go:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2295510/UnReal_World_Enhanced_Soundtrack/

Well, that's enough reading for now - let's get into listening instead.

Enjoy!

The second bugfix patch for stable version 3.72 has been released to address the following issues:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: 3.72.2

- fixed: tool selection automation when crafting a bone fishhook

Knife (for initial shaping) and rock (for sharpening the hook) weren't selected automatically from character's inventory. Moreover, if more than one rock was available you needed to erroneously specify how many of them to use in the process.

- fixed: character portait disappearing after scrolling the message log

- fixed: NPC archers sometimes shooting rocks or tree trunks

This happened when they ran out of arrows. This bug was most often revealed when fighting the Njerpez.

- fixed: random items sometimes appearing in character's inventory after rod fishing

This was caused by unintended inventory re-ordering when the bait was all used up. Even though this bug was noticed in relation to rod fishing the faulty mechanics may have caused some other rare item appearance oddities as well. We are quite hopeful that the fix will address these issues too.

- fixed: building a cellar at the location of an already existing cellar

This was erroneously possible.

- fixed: digging a pit at the location of an existing cellar

This was erroneously possible, and also made the existing cellar disappear.

- fixed [windows]: entering a message log custom entry accepted only a very short message

This was SDL related, and to our knowledge appeared only on Windows.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With release of this patch the current version is hopefully freed from the most troublesome oddities, and our focus can turn from the bug hunting towards the future features.
Stay tuned!

Oh, and stay tuned for the shortly upcoming soundtrack as well:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2295510/UnReal_World_Enhanced_Soundtrack/

That's all folks! Cheers!
urw_sage

Onto a musical journey into the Far north we shall take you ...

...as UnReal World Enhanced Soundtrack will be released in February 2023.

The soundtrack will contain the game musics plus three selected spin-off hit songs in regular (.mp3) album format and downloadable lossless audio. One of the extra tracks is a musical piece currently in progress to be premiered on this very soundtrack.

UnReal World game musics are performed and created by the devs themselves, and most of the musics we hear in the game are selected sections of longer tracks. Some of these songs have been released along the way independently, and are now re-mastered and collected together on this enhanced soundtrack.

For a foretaste, Enormous Elk YouTube channel features these two upcoming tracks:

https://youtu.be/jdSW9Z46DhE
https://youtu.be/7KAFk657dvw

If you weren't aware, the channel also contains a good bunch of UnReal World related spin-off stuff, and the recreational endeavours of two-man team called Enormous Elk.

We'll see and hear more in February!

Some OS X systems had troubles with map screen rendering, caused by SDL2 and Metal combination.
Now this quickfix for OSX hints SDL to always use OpenGL instead which should clear the issue:

- [OS X] fixed: lower part of the map not drawn correctly

urw_sage

Hotfix patch for Linux and OS X has been released. You can find the changelog below.

On OS X there were some weird random oddities namely with map rendering and menus. We certainly hope this hotfix clears 'em all. Because nature of OS X issues seemed to be system related don't hesitate contact if you're still bothered with some weirdness.


Version 3.72 (patch #1) for Linux and OS X
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- [os x] fixed: walking through walls

- [os x] fixed: fistful of random oddities with map view and menus

- fixed: character portrait being shown in message log screen

- fixed: character portrait not showing up after using encyclopedia in skills menu

- fixed: arrows picked from villages not tagged as unpaid

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Should you encounter any more showstoppers let us know and we'll continue the bug hunting.
In the meantime there's previous stable version available which you can opt-into.

To play the previous version 3.71 check the betas using code urwversion371 and opt-into the 3.71 "beta branch" that appears.

And hey, we also wouldn't mind hearing the good news if this patch now cleared the issues on your end, dear OS X adventurers!

Cheers!

Hotfix patch for Windows has been released to address the following issues:

Version 3.72 (patch #1)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- fixed: audio issues

On some systems audio got played wrong, and the audio loading failures also made the game crash prone. The issues were linked to SDL_mixer version in use we've now reverted back to using SDL_mixer 2.0.4.

- fixed: character portrait being shown in message log screen
- fixed: character portrait not showing up after using encyclopedia in skills menu
- fixed: arrows picked from villages not tagged as unpaid

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you had trouble running with 3.72 due to audio problems we dearly hope this patch fixes them for you and for all - and for good.

Should the problems persist for you we'll continue the bug hunting, and in the meantime there's previous stable version available which you can opt-into.
To play the previous version 3.71 check the betas using code urwversion371
and opt-into the 3.71 "beta branch" that appears.

And hey, if this patch brings you from the unfortunate muffled and crash prone audio league back into proper stable UnReal World again let us know!

Cheers!

Greetings!
Let us mention a few important things in the midst of the midwinter....

[h3]The Winter Sale[/h3]

Yes, it's on. And we warmly welcome the new adventurers into the Far North with discounted price.


[h3]Recent release[/h3]

A new UnReal World version 3.72 just released just a few days ago:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/351700/view/6361928485951374872
There's been few reports about sound and world gen problems with the new version, but there's also previous stable version available if things seems to fail with your system. So fear not to enter.
To play the previous version 3.71 check the betas using code urwversion371 and opt-into the 3.71 "beta branch" that appears.


[h3]Season's Greetings[/h3]

Season's greetings to everyone, and happy holidays - if you are fortunate to have one!
Let's see you in 2023, or maybe even slightly before if our midwinter bughunting proves especially succesful.

[h3]Version 3.72 is now released and live.[/h3]

As always, unless mentioned otherwise, your old characters are compatible with this version.
Aaaand here's the changelog:

Version 3.72 (stable):

- improved: NPC archery checks to avoid hitting unintended friendly targets

Before shooting an arrow NPCs can now consider the risk and possibilities of hitting an unintended friendly target, ie. members of their own party. Depending on their risk assesment the shooting NPCs may then choose to take or not to take a shot. The higher the risk, the less often you'll see the NPCs using their bows.
These improvements will change NPCs archery behaviour to quite an extent, especially if there are several NPCs being engaged in a fight or hunt, and moving within the risky zone. In general you will see NPCs being more careful with archery than before.
Now you can also feel more relieved about your own archer companion's behaviour. They won't be taking seriously foolhardy shots which might put you, your dogs or anyone else in your party at risk of being wounded by an unintended arrow hit. This will also sometimes make hunting with companions to proceed differently than before. See, if there's is a pack of dogs, or melee armed companions, running in front of capable archers it might be that they have difficulties to find a spot to make a safe shots to the target. Many new scenarios may arise, and occasionally you may need to build new tactics based on the new NPC behaviour.
Lastly, in the heat of the archery combat accidents can still happen. That possibility hasn't been excluded, but now these things should happen way, way more rarely than before.

- improved: aggressive NPCs waypointing to their enemy

Agressive NPCs may now choose to use slightly winding routes to their enemy, instead going for the shorthest and straightest route. These new tactics aim to give NPC archers some free space for shooting, and to increase chances for group of NPCs to nicely encircle their enemy.

- added: vastas can be found in village saunas during the appropriate season

Villager made vastas will now appear in the village saunas during the season when it is possible to make them. This is mostly an atmospheric addition, but also works as an indication for the player character that the birch trees are now in good leaf for making a vasta.

- added: random character name option

Upon creating characters and choosing their name you can now randomize a culturally relevant names for them. Pressing tab or asterisk (*) will bring up random names which you can then confirm with enter, or modify at will.

- added: water temperature affecting to spoilage rate of the fish caught in nets

The colder the water the longer the fish will now keep good in the nets. The effect isn't all too drastic, but still functional. In the coldest waters during the wintertime you can expect a few days longer preservation times compared to the average.

- changed: name/sex/culture character creation selections order -> culture/sex/name

As the random character name option needs to know the culture and sex to pick up a relevant names these selections now come before choosing the name.

- changed: "quick and easy" character creation mode now randomly chooses also the culture and sex

Previously there was no randomization in that regard, but Kaumolais male was always chosen. Otherwise this character creation mode mode remains the same assigning rest of the options automatically and starting nearby a village.

- added: "Harvest and pick" agriculture option

The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but this newly added option also automatically picks up the harvested plants to character's inventory. For clarification the existing "Harvest" option is now renamed as "Harvest down" in the Agriculture menu.

- added: domestic animals in the villages will withdraw from player character's way

Moving towards a domestic animal will now make it to withdraw from your way. This is to prevent the character from getting jammed eg. in small buildings with village dogs.

- modding: increased maximum number of character portraits in each category up to 250.

- added: watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map

When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

- enhanced: message about the markers at wilderness location

Instead of given information about each marker with their own message now a summary of all the markers is given in one sentence. For example: "There is a shelter, set traps and a punt at this location."

- added: confirmation to start a fire on some occasions

You will be asked a confirmation to start a fire in the following conditions:
1. There are valuable items to be burned down where you are about to build a fire.
2. You are building a fire indoors at other than fireplace location.
These confirmations will prevent the unfornate cases of accidentally setting your house or valuable belongings on fire.

- adjusted: party members fire making safety checks

From now on your companions won't ever start a fire at a location with items on the ground. Previously they might accidentally set a pile of items on fire.

- enhanced: rendering of the portraits

Character portraits are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the portraits appear more crisp and clear. This enhancement affects to various game screen where portraits are being used; quest info display, list of ancestors, character profile, chat screen, etc.

- added: two new character portraits, one western and one sage

- SDL update: updated to newest SDL 2.24.0

Updated SDL release includes a good deal of bugfixes which may have hampered some systems.

- reworded: "The sauna" game course task description

The task description of taking a sauna bath was outdated. Now it's reworded to feature the current mechanics.

- fixed: minimum number of fibre plants required to extract one bundle of fibre

Previously 15 plants were always required, which was a result of failing math. Now the amount depends on the plant and its' fibre yield, and the minimums are 5 flaxes, 8 hemps or 15 nettles.

- fixed: flowering plants providing also seeds when treshed

The seed production code apparently has gotten broken somewhere in the earlier versions, and you got them upon treshing even if the plant was still flowering. Now it's fixed back as it was and you get seeds only after the flowering period.

- fixed: sacrificing food in a container mistakenly removed the container too

- fixed: auto-cut yarn weights calculated wrong

This bug manifested itself eg. in smoking and drying cookery recipes. After retrieving the auto-cut yarn you found it heavier than expected.

- fixed: extracting fibre from retted but not dried nettles was possible

- fixed: extracting fibre from bundles of nettle fibre was possible

- fixed: carried weight statistics not updating immediately after cancelled crafting

- fixed: character's height in metric units displayed wrong

This was a conversion issue within character profile screen.

- fixed/adjusted: squirrels won't climb to safety in saplings

Previously they were mistakenly considered being high up in a tree even if it was a mere sapling.

- fixed: heavy missile weapons getting stuck to small animals

This is a legacy issue which is hopefully fixed for good now. The bug manifested itself eg. in a situation where you threw a javelin at a bird, the weapon got stuck and the bird flies away carrying it.

---

That's all folks. Cheers and enjoy the release! urw_sage

In January this year Sami (UnReal World creator) announced taking a year-off from the development chambers to celebrate the 30th Jubileum of UnReal World. It was winter then.

Now it is winter again, and among the snow and pleasantly freezing weather we are happy to stop by to announce that stable version 3.72 will be released next week.
The upcoming version has been available as beta branch for a good while already, but with a few last additional tweaks and features it then becomes default and live for all of you, dear adventurers.

And as the year turns to its' end the fourth decade of UnReal World development is about to start.


Sami ([i]UnReal World creator) slowly heading back to development chambers.[/i]

Version 3.72 beta is now available for all the supported platforms - Windows, Linux and OS X.
OS X build was the last in line and considering the stability of Windows and Linux betas released earlier there's really no need to hesitate to opt-into this release - regardless of your operating system.

There is dozen of new features, fistful of fixes, and still more features pending to be added on our way towards the stable release which should be out still this year.

You'll find the full changelog and instructions how to Opt into the beta later in this post, but let's highlight some new features first.

Random character names


Upon character creation you can now randomize culturally relevant names for them at will. Here a Kuikka-tribe female is being created with a random name of her culture.


Harvest and pick agriculture option


The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but now there's an option cut and pick the crops to character's inventory at one go.


Watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map


When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.72 (beta) for Windows changelog

- added: random character name option

Upon creating characters and choosing their name you can now randomize a culturally relevant names for them. Pressing tab or asterisk (*) will bring up random names which you can then confirm with enter, or modify at will.

- changed: name/sex/culture character creation selections order -> culture/sex/name

As the random character name option needs to know the culture and sex to pick up a relevant names these selections now come before choosing the name.

- changed: "quick and easy" character creation mode now randomly chooses also the culture and sex

Previously there was no randomization in that regard, but Kaumolais male was always chosen. Otherwise this character creation mode mode remains the same assigning rest of the options automatically and starting nearby a village.

- added: "Harvest and pick" agriculture option

The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but this newly added option also automatically picks up the harvested plants to character's inventory. For clarification the existing "Harvest" option is now renamed as "Harvest down" in the Agriculture menu.

- added: domestic animals in the villages will withdraw from player character's way

Moving towards a domestic animal will now make it to withdraw from your way. This is to prevent the character from getting jammed eg. in small buildings with village dogs.

- modding: increased maximum number of character portraits in each category up to 250.

- added: watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map

When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

- enhanced: message about the markers at wilderness location

Instead of given information about each marker with their own message now a summary of all the markers is given in one sentence. For example: "There is a shelter, set traps and a punt at this location."

- added: confirmation to start a fire on some occasions

You will be asked a confirmation to start a fire in the following conditions:
1. There are valuable items to be burned down where you are about to build a fire.
2. You are building a fire indoors at other than fireplace location.
These confirmations will prevent the unfortunate cases of accidentally setting your house or valuable belongings on fire.

- adjusted: party members fire making safety checks

From now on your companions won't ever start a fire at a location with items on the ground. Previously they might accidentally set a pile of items on fire.

- enhanced: rendering of the portraits

Character portraits are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the portraits appear more crisp and clear. This enhancement affects to various game screen where portraits are being used; quest info display, list of ancestors, character profile, chat screen, etc.

- SDL update: updated to newest SDL 2.24.0

Updated SDL release includes a good deal of bugfixes which may have hampered some systems.

- fixed: sacrificing food in a container mistakenly removed the container too

- fixed: auto-cut yarn weights calculated wrong

This bug manifested itself eg. in smoking and drying cookery recipes. After retrieving the auto-cut yarn you found it heavier than expected.

- fixed: extracting fibre from retted but not dried nettles was possible

- fixed: carried weight statistics not updating immediately after cancelled crafting

- fixed: character's height in metric units displayed wrong

This was a conversion issue within character profile screen.

- fixed/adjusted: squirrels won't climb to safety in saplings

Previously they were mistakenly considered being high up in a tree even if it was a mere sapling.


[h2]How to opt-into 3.72 beta[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is version372beta
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.72 beta appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  
  

We're happy to announce that 3.72 beta has been now finished and built also for Linux.
This beta has been available for Windows for a good while already, and has proven pretty stable already. Let's hope the Linux beta continues on the same good path.
More features are pending to be added, and OS X beta is still pending to be finished.

You'll find the full changelog and instructions how to Opt into the beta later in this post, but let's highlight some new features first.

Random character names


Upon character creation you can now randomize culturally relevant names for them at will. Here a Kuikka-tribe female is being created with a random name of her culture.


Harvest and pick agriculture option


The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but now there's an option cut and pick the crops to character's inventory at one go.


Watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map


When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.72 (beta) for Windows changelog

- added: random character name option

Upon creating characters and choosing their name you can now randomize a culturally relevant names for them. Pressing tab or asterisk (*) will bring up random names which you can then confirm with enter, or modify at will.

- changed: name/sex/culture character creation selections order -> culture/sex/name

As the random character name option needs to know the culture and sex to pick up a relevant names these selections now come before choosing the name.

- changed: "quick and easy" character creation mode now randomly chooses also the culture and sex

Previously there was no randomization in that regard, but Kaumolais male was always chosen. Otherwise this character creation mode mode remains the same assigning rest of the options automatically and starting nearby a village.

- added: "Harvest and pick" agriculture option

The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but this newly added option also automatically picks up the harvested plants to character's inventory. For clarification the existing "Harvest" option is now renamed as "Harvest down" in the Agriculture menu.

- added: domestic animals in the villages will withdraw from player character's way

Moving towards a domestic animal will now make it to withdraw from your way. This is to prevent the character from getting jammed eg. in small buildings with village dogs.

- modding: increased maximum number of character portraits in each category up to 250.

- added: watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map

When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

- enhanced: message about the markers at wilderness location

Instead of given information about each marker with their own message now a summary of all the markers is given in one sentence. For example: "There is a shelter, set traps and a punt at this location."

- added: confirmation to start a fire on some occasions

You will be asked a confirmation to start a fire in the following conditions:
1. There are valuable items to be burned down where you are about to build a fire.
2. You are building a fire indoors at other than fireplace location.
These confirmations will prevent the unfortunate cases of accidentally setting your house or valuable belongings on fire.

- adjusted: party members fire making safety checks

From now on your companions won't ever start a fire at a location with items on the ground. Previously they might accidentally set a pile of items on fire.

- enhanced: rendering of the portraits

Character portraits are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the portraits appear more crisp and clear. This enhancement affects to various game screen where portraits are being used; quest info display, list of ancestors, character profile, chat screen, etc.

- SDL update: updated to newest SDL 2.24.0

Updated SDL release includes a good deal of bugfixes which may have hampered some systems.

- fixed: sacrificing food in a container mistakenly removed the container too

- fixed: auto-cut yarn weights calculated wrong

This bug manifested itself eg. in smoking and drying cookery recipes. After retrieving the auto-cut yarn you found it heavier than expected.

- fixed: extracting fibre from retted but not dried nettles was possible

- fixed: carried weight statistics not updating immediately after cancelled crafting

- fixed: character's height in metric units displayed wrong

This was a conversion issue within character profile screen.

- fixed/adjusted: squirrels won't climb to safety in saplings

Previously they were mistakenly considered being high up in a tree even if it was a mere sapling.


[h2]How to opt-into 3.72 Linux (or Windows) beta[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is version372beta
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.72 beta appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  
  

The spooky times are at hand, and once again we are taking part in the ongoing festivities with a sale and haunting imagery. So let the new adventurers be respected with the discount, and the ancestral spirits with our special Kekri costumes and customs...


[h2]It's Kekri, not halloween, in the Far North.[/h2]

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.


[h2]Kekri Goat[/h2]

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?
Yes. He dresses up as Kekripukki.


Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well.


[h2]Themed in-game visuals for the spooky period[/h2]

Again this year the we have launched a special Kekri-themed game title screen for duration of the festivity period. Themed title screen becomes live shortly after this annoucement, so allow the game to update and enter your UnReal World for more haunting imagery.


[h2]Celebrate & Participate[/h2]

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.

urw_sageurw_fireurw_tree

Surprise, surprise!

The autumn has come, there's hint of winter in the air. The nights have gotten darker and longer, and there's been rainy days too. Perfect weather for coding, one might say. And you know what, that's what's been happening in the silence of the coding chambers lately.

So here we are, flexing our coding and release muscles with a new, seemingly unexpected release packed with a dozen of new features and a fistful of fixes.

This version 3.72 comes out as a beta release you need to Opt into, and for starters it's only for Windows. More features are pending to be added, and OS X and Linux versions will follow in time.
Not to worry, the story continues.

You'll find the full changelog and instructions how to Opt into the beta later in this post, but let's highlight some new features first.

Random character names


Upon character creation you can now randomize culturally relevant names for them at will. Here a Kuikka-tribe female is being created with a random name of her culture.


Harvest and pick agriculture option


The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but now there's an option cut and pick the crops to character's inventory at one go.


Watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map


When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.72 (beta) for Windows changelog

- added: random character name option

Upon creating characters and choosing their name you can now randomize a culturally relevant names for them. Pressing tab or asterisk (*) will bring up random names which you can then confirm with enter, or modify at will.

- changed: name/sex/culture character creation selections order -> culture/sex/name

As the random character name option needs to know the culture and sex to pick up a relevant names these selections now come before choosing the name.

- changed: "quick and easy" character creation mode now randomly chooses also the culture and sex

Previously there was no randomization in that regard, but Kaumolais male was always chosen. Otherwise this character creation mode mode remains the same assigning rest of the options automatically and starting nearby a village.

- added: "Harvest and pick" agriculture option

The good old harvest option only cut down the crops, but this newly added option also automatically picks up the harvested plants to character's inventory. For clarification the existing "Harvest" option is now renamed as "Harvest down" in the Agriculture menu.

- added: domestic animals in the villages will withdraw from player character's way

Moving towards a domestic animal will now make it to withdraw from your way. This is to prevent the character from getting jammed eg. in small buildings with village dogs.

- modding: increased maximum number of character portraits in each category up to 250.

- added: watercraft marker icons on zoomed-out wilderness map

When leaving punt or raft on the zoomed-in map the corresponding marker icon is now shown on the zoomed-out wilderness map.

- enhanced: message about the markers at wilderness location

Instead of given information about each marker with their own message now a summary of all the markers is given in one sentence. For example: "There is a shelter, set traps and a punt at this location."

- added: confirmation to start a fire on some occasions

You will be asked a confirmation to start a fire in the following conditions:
1. There are valuable items to be burned down where you are about to build a fire.
2. You are building a fire indoors at other than fireplace location.
These confirmations will prevent the unfortunate cases of accidentally setting your house or valuable belongings on fire.

- adjusted: party members fire making safety checks

From now on your companions won't ever start a fire at a location with items on the ground. Previously they might accidentally set a pile of items on fire.

- enhanced: rendering of the portraits

Character portraits are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the portraits appear more crisp and clear. This enhancement affects to various game screen where portraits are being used; quest info display, list of ancestors, character profile, chat screen, etc.

- SDL update: updated to newest SDL 2.24.0

Updated SDL release includes a good deal of bugfixes which may have hampered some systems.

- fixed: sacrificing food in a container mistakenly removed the container too

- fixed: auto-cut yarn weights calculated wrong

This bug manifested itself eg. in smoking and drying cookery recipes. After retrieving the auto-cut yarn you found it heavier than expected.

- fixed: extracting fibre from retted but not dried nettles was possible

- fixed: carried weight statistics not updating immediately after cancelled crafting

- fixed: character's height in metric units displayed wrong

This was a conversion issue within character profile screen.

- fixed/adjusted: squirrels won't climb to safety in saplings

Previously they were mistakenly considered being high up in a tree even if it was a mere sapling.


[h2]How to opt-into 3.72 Windows beta[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
  
• The access code for this release is version372beta
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.72 beta appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  
  

You see a canoe here.
The paddle wielded as a primary weapon.
You pust the canoe into water and jump aboard.

And there, in the real world, 120 kilometer long Kokemenjoki ("Kokemki River") awaits...



So, a little while ago Sami (UnReal World creator) went for a 130 kilometer river canoeing trip, and here comes a little photo greetings from that magical journey.

We travelled with an indian canoe through the whole Kokemki River in southwestern Finland, all the way to the Gulf of Bothnia, and on top of that some 10 kilometers out to the Reposaari island at Bothnian Sea.




































[hr][/hr]It took six amazing days of adventuring, and there are a lot more sceneries to show and stories to tell. For those who are keen to see more I will go through the whole journey in day-by-day series of posts at my buymeacoffee page.
Take a peek, all the content is available for everyone.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen/posts

But should you then feel like buying a coffee for a weary paddler one of the upsides is that every supporter gets e-mail notifications when future posts are up.
[hr][/hr]
Let's keep adventuring. urw_fox

Steam Survival Fest is on and we welcome you to join to this sale of the fittest.
Just follow your survival instinct into the far north where UnReal World awaits.
We're all about survival.

GWR Gamer's Edition has labeled UnReal World "The first open-world survival videogame",
and the devs are famous studying and trying traditional skills and techniques in real life to come up with credible game mechanics and atmosphere.

The game itself has survived for 30 years, and continues to thrive as a unique low-fantasy roguelike set in the far north during the late Iron-Age. The world of the game is highly realistic, rich with historical atmosphere and emphasized on survival in the harsh ancient wilderness.


Sami (UnReal World creator) roaming the real world, developing the unreal.

Steam Summer Sale is on!

So lay back, wipe the sweat off your forehead, and feel free to enter into the far north for discounted price. It's easier there in the summer - you'll see.

It's been enjoyable adventuring in the real world too, so let's share a some selected content about how life has been around the development chambers of both Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer).

Firstly, here's a new primitive music piece by the said fellows. The recording took place in the spring around Erkka's chambers:
https://youtu.be/jdSW9Z46DhE

And secondly, few images from around Sami's neighborhood:





Cheers and happy summertime!

Greetings everyone!

As you may know I'm spending sort of a year off from coding and concentrating more on the real world stuff. But the absence from the development chambers doesn't mean a radio silence. I'm happy to post a little news and photo feeds occasionally to stay in touch with You adventurers out there, and that's what people have wished for too. So here we go ...

I recently had a minor accident with my right hand and now need to keep a cast for a month, but that's not stopping the roaming in the woods. Hehe, you know this from the game too - the many activities might be slower, but doable.
So here's a photo greetings from one beautiful May day in the grove forest. These woods are half an hour walk away from UnReal World development chambers. This is a very special place since there are lot's of conifer forests to see here in Finland - as you may have noticed in the game too - but this kind of grove like leaf tree habitats are more rare.










And by the way, if peeks into these 2022 real world endeavours is your cup of coffee I'm building up a habit of more regular posts at my buymeacoffee page:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen
It's kind of like an alternate media channel to see and support not the game development, but the game developer's lifestyle. Or whatever.

Take care everyone,

-Sami (UnReal World creator, gap year adventurer)

Going Rogue: A Festival of Persistence has started here on Steam and oh yes, that's a sort of celebration that suits us so very well!

From the player's point of view it often requires persistence to roam the harsh wilderness pursuing your way to survive in the far North. From developer's point of view it also has required quite a bit of persistence to keep developing the game for the past 30 years.

UnReal World has its' roots very deep in the roguelike genre. Sami (UnReal Word creator) was an avid player of the pioneer roguelikes such as Hack/Nethack, Moria and Omega back in the day. And it was those games that inspired him to get on the roguelike path and start creating UnReal World.

Taking a look at the screenshots from 1992 and 2022, it appears we've stayed somewhat true to our roots ...

1992 - UnReal World 1.00b


2022 - UnReal World 3.71

...but well, on the inside it's been a journey of 140,000 lines of code so far.
Should you wish to experience all that Going Rogue sale is one chance to enter into the far North with a discounted price.

Cheers! Long live the roguelikes!
urw_sage

On Thursday 24 February, president Putin launched a devastating attack on a sovereign country of Ukraine and ever since the Russian forces are continuing to pound Ukrainian cities, including residential areas, with missile strikes and artillery fire. There is no excuse for this war. The civilians, including children, are suffering to the extent where Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II has emerged.

We support Ukraine and have made contributions to relief efforts.
We support Russians that stand against the senseless actions of the Russian government.
We have players from all over the world, from Ukraine and Russia too.
The majority of common people are not to blame for the madness and destruction, but the common people are to suffer from Putin's war. It needs to stop. We ask you to raise awareness, and work for the peace.
Do not stand aside, do not tolerate this, and help if you can.

In nearly every country you can find organizations such as Red Cross and Unicef who accept donations for Ukraine. For news, if you haven't been following, for example The Guardian has summary article of Russias war in Ukraine with pictures, maps, and videos:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/07/russia-war-ukraine-complete-guide-maps-video-and-pictures

You are online, you can find more news sources too. If in your country the world events are being filtered by the propaganda, censorship, restriction of information or freedom of speech try to reach beyond that. It takes some effort, but we support your efforts.

And once more; raise awareness of what is happening, work for the peace, do not stand aside and help those in need.

This year, in 2022, we are celebrating the 30th Jubileum of UnReal World.
The game was first released in the summer of 1992, so the 30-year milestone will be reached this summer.
Now what will this special year of celebration bring upon us, and the game?

When it comes to coding and development, I will be taking it real easy. It is likely that we'll see some updates to the game, but mostly I'll be devoting my time for variety of other things. So I'll kind of celebrate the 30 years of development by taking a year off from the usual coding flurry. This also allows me to better contemplate on the future of the game as there some challenging overhauls in our sight. One is moving to higher resolution and modern aspect ratio. The year is early, and these thoughts are scattered, so more news on this front will follow later on. But yes, it is truly so that I will take a year off from the usual, practical, hands-on development. Planning, brainstorming and a little something easy paced remains, though.

Nevertheless, during this year of celebration we will be bringing you some recreational content from the North, out and away from the development chambers. What it will be exactly remains to be seen, but I'm sure this year off will bring along many occasions, incidents, experiments or artistic projects to share or publish. There are some ideas bubbling under already.

On this thursday, 27th of January, it will be my 47th birthday. I started working on UnReal World at the age of 15 and two years later, at the age of 17, the first version was released to the public. Now the 30th Jubileum, or 47th birthday, may feel like an occasion to offer me a drink or something, and for that purpose I quickly created "buy me a coffee" page.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SamiMaaranen
It's a simple support channel I've been asked to allow even earlier. Now it's up and will remain so at least for this year. I'll reserve the right to decide the drink to buy with your support :) , but big cheers anyway!

So these are the news to start this year with. Feel free to comment or ask if something comes to your mind.

Yours,
Sami (UnReal World creator)


The developer is currently out the office ...


He's skiing in the woods following two elks...


He will be back occasionally and eventually.

The midwinter and holiday season is at hand, and Steam Winter sale is also about to start soon.

It is time to send you our warmest Season's Greetings with a few moody photos from this very day.
Thank you for 2021 to those who already roam the UnReal World, and welcome into the Far North, all you new adventurers.



We have just passed the Winter Solstice on northern hemisphere, and the amount of daylight now slowly starts increasing. Otherwise the winter in Eastern Finland continues in decent -20 degrees celsius temperatures with delightful amount of snow. Sami (UnReal World creator) heads towards the real world in horizon.


Merry Christmas, Tree. This mighty spruce grows beside the village road, not very far from the development chambers.


Now let's survive the midwinter, and see you again in 2022!

Nominations for Steam Awards 2021 has started together with Autumn Sale, so get involved now.

Does 29 years of continuous development equal to Labor of Love?

Labor of Love, that's the category that suits UnReal World the best.
First released in 1992 the game now sports 29 years of development with 140,000 lines of code - and counting.
UnReal World has two Guinness Gamer's World Records due to being...well...a labor of love - and it's made by two-man team deep in the Finnish wilderness...


Sami (UnReal World creator) coding in the woods. Well, actually the development mostly takes place indoors but you get the picture, right.

Now did you actually have another title in mind that suits the category better?
Be that as it may, this is our two cents suggestion for a true Labor of Love nominee.

A small bugfix patch has been released to address the following issues:

- fixed: some faulty animal snow penalty calculations

On few occasions the fatigue rate of animals moving in the deep snow wasn't calculated right. This could result either in animals tiring too easily, or too little.

- fixed: distributing offered traded items among foreign traders wasn't always working

You might still end up in "can't carry" trade situation, even though the trading party would have capacity to carry the offered goods. Hopefully this is fixed for good now.

- fixed: Crash/shutdown related character data loss on Windows systems

On Windows system crash or computer power loss might result in character corruption which at its worst erased character data to the extent of making them unrecoverable.
This issue has been now addressed with extra safety measures and internal backups which hopefully prevent the worst case data losses for good. Should you experience Windows crash the game now tries to recover character data automatically from internal backup files upon loading the character again. You may still loose some moments or few map loads in the character's life but the game hopefully goes on more reliably.

- fixed: UrW mobile controller not working on some systems

That's all folks! Happy adventures!
urw_sage urw_fire

Once again we are taking part in the ongoing Halloween Kekri Sale with the pleasing numbers and haunting imagery. So let the new adventurers be respected with the discount, and the ancestral spirits with our special Kekri costumes and customs...

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.

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?
Yes. He dresses up as Kekripukki.


Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well.

Kekri-themed title screen
Again this year the we have launched a special Kekri-themed game title screen for duration of this sale & festivity period. The theme screen becomes live shortly after this annoucement, so allow the game to update and enter UnReal World for more haunting imagery.


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.

urw_sageurw_fireurw_tree

UnReal World version 3.70 has reached the stable stage and is now released and live.
Your game will auto-update and characters from the previous version are compatible with the new version.

If you were playing 3.70 beta versions, you should know that there's also new content added since the last beta. And if you weren't playing beta versions at all, then prepare to discover a lot.
You'll find changelogs later in this post, but first a little look at the key features with a few screenshots.

Key features of version 3.70

The key features of version 3.70 version deal with the moon and the moonlight, fibre processing with new textilecraft skill, snow penalty for all the creatures and snow crust, lots of new character portraits, tying equipment adjustments and additions, crafting fishing rods and hooks and usage of baits, option for metric units, and so on. The list of additions and fixes is long and you can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.


Trudging through the deep snow the escaping elk tires itself easily while the hunter gliding with skis on snow crust travels easily.


There are lots of new character portraits added, and also an option to ask whereabouts of village water supply.


The autumn nights are already dark, but during full moon there's enough light for example to go fishing - with self-made fishing rod and hooks, that is.


Textilecraft in action. We have a new batch of harvested nettles retting in the water, and prepare to spin some yarn from earlier extracted nettle fibres.

Version 3.70 changelogs

First, here's changelog since the latest 3.70 beta version.
New content to be aware for those who have already been playing the beta versions.

3.70 (stable) changelog - new content since 3.70-beta 3

- added: whole lotta new portraits, and specific portait categories for old men and sages

A good bunch of new portraits have been added for kids, female and male characters. There are also two new portrait categories specifically for old men and sages. Portraits in these categories are exclusive for those type of NPCs and can't be associated with other NPCs nor chosen as a player character portrait.
MIGRATION NOTICE: NPCs generated in the previous versions continue to appear with their previously generated portraits.

- added: bowstrings as a separate functional part of a bow

Bowstrings are now featured as a craftable item of their own. Bowstrings wear out in use and thus need to be replaced every now and then. Crafting any bow now requires also a bowstring item, so you need to have a bowstring ready in order to make a functional bow.

* crafting a bowstring

Bowstrings can be crafted from [M]ake-menu under [W]eapons category. Bowstrings are made out of multiple strands of yarn twisted together, but also thin cordage can be used for a makeshift bowstring. Upon crafting a bowstring you can select the material, yarn or cord, to be used.
It's faster to make a bowstring from a cord and the required length is also far lesser, but bowstrings made out of cords are also always of lesser quality. Your textilecraft skill determines the success of making a bowstring. Due to item usage complexity bowstring crafting is hard-coded and not to be found in editable diy_*.txt file.

* bowstring breakage and replacement

Good quality bowstring can last up to thousand of shots or so. The lower the quality the faster the bowstring is prone to break. When the bowstring breaks a message is displayed and the bow gets described as "bow with no string". Naturally you can't shoot with such a bow anymore until a new bowstring is added.
You can check out condition of a bowstring in strung bows with [i]nventory command. Upon selecting a bow to examine you will see how the bowstring looks like.
You can add a new bowstring to a bow with no string with [a]pply command. First apply the bowstring, and then select a bow to be strung with the string.

- added: [a]pply command can be used to remove hook from a fishing rod or to unstring a bow

Sometimes you want to remove the old fishhook or bowstring at will and it can be done with [a]pply command.
To remove a hook from a fishing rod [a]pply the fishing rod on dry land. The reason for doing it on dry land is that otherwise the fishing attempt will be initiated.
To remove a bowstring from a strung bow just [a]pply the bow anytime.
If you try to attach a fishhook or bowstring to fishing rod or bow that already carries those item parts you'll be notified of these new removal mechanics.

- added: spruce quick-bow - a simple craftable makeshift bow

Spruce quick-bow is the most simple and quick to make type of a bow. It's made out of a single branch that is cut from a standing spruce tree. It goes without saying that this type of bow is not a high performance weapon, but it is efficient enough for hunting squirrels and other small game.
Spruce quick-bow can be crafted from [M]ake menu "Weapons"-category. There's also SPRUCE QUICK-BOW game encyclopedia [F1] entry available for more information.

- removed: primitive bow and juniper bow - newly introduced spruce quick-bow replaces these.

- adjusted: villagers reclaiming heavy loads

Previously villagers would crowd endlessly around items they wanted to reclaim and restock if the load of whole stack was too heavy to pick up. Now they try to pick up such loads in smaller stacks, and if that should fail also they will eventually give up.

- added: craftable cords and ropes from yarn

You can now craft cords and ropes from yarn. These options can be fround from [M]ake menu under [T]ying equipment category.

- adjusted: cord and rope crafting requirements and applicable skill

Crafting any cord or rope now also requires a branch which is used as an aid for twisting the strands firmly together. The applicable skill for crafting yarn based cords and ropes is now textilecraft.

- changed: generic "cord" item name and quality

The generic craftable makeshift "cord" item which is made out of strips of clothing is now called "cloth cord" and its finished quality always remains on inferior side.

- updated: game encyclopedia [F1] entry for CORD and ROPE

- adjusted: "Set a net" now shows only tools in "Fishing" menu

- modding add: 'first word' value for [naming:] tag

Using 'first word' with [naming:] tag will get value of the first word of selected material/item name.
For example, material requirement and naming such as:
{Cord} [remove] [name:%s product] [naming:first word]
would result in finished item called 'yarn product' if 'yarn cord' was selected as the material, or 'linen product' if 'linen cord' was selected. And so on.

- adjusted: fatigue accumulation when moving by watercraft

Type of the vessel and implement used to move it now matters to how fatiguing it is to move by watercraft. In general it is more strenuous to move by raft than by punt. The implement used to move the vessel also matters. Shoving the watercraft ahead with sesta takes more effort than paddling.

- adjusted: companions pay more attention to closing doors

Companions now always try to close the doors they pass. This is to avoid them letting domestic animals, or warmth, to escape from your settlements.

- fixed: possibility of NPC portrait being the same as player character's portrait
- fixed: carried load unit (lb/kg) in statistics window not changing if system of measurement was changed during the gameplay
- fixed: sneaking while skiing on snow crust didn't reduce the speed
- fixed: dried cuts as fishing baits got used up in one single fishing attempt
- fixed: [nominlen] crafting tag not calculating tying equipment stacks properly
- fixed: NPC's excess bartered good might be distributed also to the village animals
- fixed: auto-shortening of tying equipment in crafting recipes not always reducing the weight accordingly
- fixed: boy NPC weights generated wrong and too low
- fixed: plants not burning in fire

Version 3.70 major changelog - since the first beta release

- added: snow crust

Snow crust is a springtime phenomena where surface of the snowpack becomes so hard that it can completely support a walking or skiing person - and some animals as well. The crust results from partial melting of the snow surface by warm spring day sunlight followed by re-freezing when the temperature drops again, usually after the sunset.
The crust normally only lasts for part of the day, but being able to travel on snow without sinking in there at all is a great asset for a hunter.
Elks were traditionally hunted on skis during crust as it can't support the heavy animals and hunter gliding on skis eventually became faster than their fatiguing prey. This hunting method and many other wintertime scenarios now become possible with the additon of snow crust mechanics.

* If the snow crust can support somebody or not depends on how hard and thick the crust is, and how heavy the load of the person or animal is. Similarly to ice mechanics the snow crust also supports skiing person better than a walking person. The crust mechanics work similarly for player character, NPCs and animals.

* Information about the crust type, if there is any, is told when you look at snowy ground tiles. The crust information is added to the snow depth information so you get messages like "waist deep snow with hard crust", "knee deep snow with faint crust", and so on.

* Skiing on crust is faster and less fatiguing. There's also a new ski message notifying you about skiing on the crust. Similarly walking on crust is naturally faster than trudging in the deep snow. It's practically as easy as walking on any solid surface.

* There are new movement samples for walking or skiing on crust, so the sound of character's movement also works as an indicator of the phenomena.

- improved: mobility and fatigue penalties for moving in the snow

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.
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.

- added: more prone to stumble when wearing skis

Whenever stumbling is checked a character wearing skis is always less agile and more likely to stumble than without skis.

- added: village areas always have reduced snow depth

The village area is considered so stomped that the snow depth is always low. Otherwise NPCs and player characters might needlessly fatigue themselves merely by walking around the village.

- added: foreign traders can share the excess trading load

Previously a single foreign trader wouldn't accept more traded furs than he could carry. This made trading of heavy pelts often all too awkward. Now foreign traders can share the excess load so that if the NPC you are trading with can't carry it all the excess items are distributed to his fellows who can.

- changed: observing surroundings from a tree - no more see-though trees

You can't see through trees anymore when observing surroundings after climbing up a tree. The overall visibility is still better but foremostly because being higher allows you to see beyond elevations that would normally block your field of vision. But visual obstacles such as trees now do remain visual obstacles.

- added: the moon, and the moonlight

The weather engine now models the moon in detail, with its' changing phases and moonlight affecting to the nighttime visibility and brightness. There are eight different moon phases now graphically presented in the horizon window, and the map gets blue moonlight tint according to the amount of moonlight provided.
Especially during the darkest seasons moonlight can be of a great help significally extending the available hours for working, hunting or travelling. The moonlit nights are now a really different experience, and remember that it doesn't even have to be a full-moon for the moonlight effects to be noticed.

- added: smoothly changing visibility based on time of day

The change in visibility, ie. how far the character can see, now happens on minute basis. This means the visibility decreases and increases with the sunsets and sunrises much more smoothly than previously, when it was calculated on hourly basis. The visibility is also now more realistically calculated from the angle of the sun relative to the horizon.
During the darkest seasons you will now experience the darkness falling faster, but also more smoothly, together with the quickly setting sun. The summer night expreriences don't change all that much compared to the previous version, but whenever the visibility changes even a little it now happens in smaller and smoother steps.

- changed: plant harvest time information messages

There are few changes in messages when looking at plants that aren't yet ready for harvesting. The used expression now speaks of "fully ripe" instead of "can be harvested", because its sometimes useful and possible to harvest plants even before they are matured.
In case of herbs that are gathered for their flowers the harvest time expression now refers to when the plant will be flowering, instead of when it's fully matured for harvesting.

- added: plant fibre processing with a new TEXTILECRAFT skill

You can now extract fibres from nettle, hemp and flax and process them into yarn. For this, a new TEXTILECRAFT skill has been added. Plant fibre processing involves several stages of work, which are explained in detail below. There's also game encyclopedia (F1) entry about TEXTILECRAFT containing the essential information.
All the textilecraft options can be found in the general [M]ake menu, or by using the textilecraft skill. And this is how the plant fibre processing is done:

* RETTING

First, the fibres must be separated from the stalks of harvested plants. 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, 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.
Nettle fibres are a speciality as they can be extracted directly from the fresh plants without retting and drying processes. Pros and cons of this are explained in EXTRACT FIBRE chapter.

* DRYING

When retting is complete, the plant stalks are dried outdoors in loose bundles. The stalks need to dry out fully so that they can be crushed in the following work phase of extracting the fibre. Drying takes about a week, and once dried they can be also stored for future and processed when theres need and time for that.

* EXTRACT FIBRE

Lastly, the fibres can be now extracted from the stalks. This is done by breaking the 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. Extracting fibres this way 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.
If need be, nettle fibres can be also extracted directly from the stalk by hand without the preceeding steps. To do it simply use "extract fibre" option directly to freshly harvested nettles. This method takes more time and dexterity, but can be a useful option when only a small amount of fibre is needed. 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.
Extracted fibres are obtained in small bundles, eg. "bundle of hemp fibre". These items are categorized as PLANT type in character's inventory.

* SPIN YARN

Spinning fibres into yarn can be done either by hand, or with a spindle. Spinning by hand is naturally slower than using a spindle. Spindles are recognized also as ground items so you don't have to carry it with you. If you have companions around one of them can assist in spinning by holding the bundle of fibres for you. Obtained yarn can be then used in crafting of many different items.

- added: flax - a new cultivated plant

Flax is an old cultivated textile plant, but not as commonly grown as hemp. It doesn't survive in the very north and is grown only by certain cultures south of Kaumo. Kiesseliset and Reemiliset in the east, and Driikiliset, Sartolaiset and Koivulaiset in the west do grow flax.
Flax flowering is featured in the game, although the flowers can't be picked. The seeds develop after the flowering, but flax can be also harvested earlier for fibre alone.

- game encyclopedia [F1]: updated entries about LINEN, FLAX, HEMP and NETTLE

- added: spindle - a new craftable item for spinning fibres into yarn.

- added: yarn as village product

Villagers can now produce and stock yarn made of either nettle or hemp. The type and availability of yarn depends on the culture and village population.

- changed: some craftable items now require yarn as the tying equipment type

Yarn is now required for example when making arrows, loop snare and fishing rod. There can be minor changes in the required lengths as well.

- added: leather cord, a new craftable item

Leather cord is made simply by cutting long, thin strands of leather. It's craftable from Tying equipment category in Make menu.

- added: "strong cordage" tying equipment requirement type

Strong cordage covers all the ropes and spruce withes. That's what you need to use when strong cordage is required in crafting and building.

- modding add: {Strong cordage} material tag

- changed: some craftable items now require strong cordage as the tying equipment type

Strong cordage is now required for example when making raft, big deadfall trap and bear trap.

- added: "thin cordage" tying equipment requirement type

Thin cordage covers cords and yarns. That's what you need to use when thin cordage is required in crafting and building.

- modding add: {Thin cordage} material tag

- added: making clothes requires thin cordage

Crafting of leather and fur clothes now require varying lengths of thin cordage for sewing the parts together. Yarns and cords can be used for that. This requirements covers most of the clothes but few pieces such as caps and cloaks can be crafted without any cordage.

- added: more use for cured animal skins

All the cured skins now work as kota covers, and cured furs work similarly to tanned furs as ground covers and blankets for more comfortable sleeping.

- added: straw - a new item part of certain plants

Straws are byproduct of threshing plants such as nettles and hemp. Straws don't 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.

- modding add: a new flora header tag: [straw]

There is a new tag that can be added to plant header in flora_*.txt files.
[straw] tag indicates that the plant leaves a straw after it is threshed. The tag is currently in use for hemp and nettle, for their fibre processing possibilities.

- modding add: a new flora property [FIBRE_YIELD:1,2,3]

There is a new property for plants in flora_*.txt files. [FIBRE_YIELD:value] property can have value of 1,2 or 3 and it defines how much fibre the plant yields when processed with textilecraft options.

- modified: nettle plant properties and habitats

They sprout about a month earlier than previously, in seedtime month, and have new habitats; wetland, pond and cliff.

- added: textile plants can be harvested for fibre while they're still growing

Harvesting growing textile plants can be done at the age of 30-35% of their full growth time. This needs to be done with "Harvest" agriculture option, as using pick up command just collects the young leaves or so.

- added: post spruce, a simple wilderness condition shelter

Post spruce ("asentokuusi" in Finnish) is a temporary shelter made by felling a spruce tree to lean against another. Some low branches are cut to make space in the midst of the trees, and the cut twigs are laid on the ground as insulation. This simple shelter gives you protection from the elements and is commonly used for spending a night in the wilderness.
The option to set up a post spruce is found under "Building options", and requires the same tools as felling young trees in general. The twigs for the ground insulation are cut and laid automatically.

- added: sleeping on spruce twigs

Sleeping on spruce twigs now gives a little extra warmth and protection from the cold. Sleeping on furs is still the most comfortable way to spend a cold night, but spruce twigs come as a good alternative. About half a dozen spruce twigs will provide enough insulation from the cold ground.

- added: automated cutting of tying equipment to required lengths in crafting

Tying equipment is now automatically cut to required lengths in crafting. However, with this new condition in effect the selected equipment must meet the minimum required lengths - with a few exceptions which are dealt later.
For example:
If "5 feet cord" is required you can use any cord 5 feet or longer, but not shorter pieces. If the selected cord is longer than required it will be automatically cut to length and you'll find the remaining portion in your inventory.
When multiple pieces of certain length tying equipment is needed the requirement is now described for example as "5 feet cord * 2", meaning that you need two pieces of 5 feet cords. This is a change compared to previous versions where such requirement would have been descriped as the total calculated length eg. "10 feet of cord".
That is the default way of handling tying equipment requirements now, but there are few exceptions to the rules described above. The exceptions are:
- using birch-bark strips in crafting
- tying equipment requirements in smoking and drying processess
- making a raft
In these cases the tying equipment requirement is descriped as total calculated length and can be composed of several shorter pieces - just like it used to be. There's also new crafting tag [nominlen] which can be used to ignore minimum length requirement where necessary.

- modding add: [nominlen] tag for length-based materials

This tag, which stands for "no minimum length", can be used to indicate that length-based material requirement can be composed of several shorter pieces.

For example: {Cord} =5= [nominlen] [remove]

This means that 5 feet of cord is required but you can come up with the total length using several shorter pieces. If [nominlen] tag wasn't used here the selected cord would need to be at least 5 feet long.

- added: little girls as new NPC type

MIGRATION NOTICE: Villages generated in the previous versions contain only NPC types of that particular version so you can't expect to find little girls from migrated villages.

- changed: "kid" and "child" NPC descpriptions changed to generic "boy" description

- adjusted: children NPC attributes and skills

Previously children NPCs didn't differ all that much from the adults, but now their physical and mental attributes have been checked and adjusted. In general children are now weaker and more vulnerable to physical harm. But even if they lack the strength and endurance of the adults the level of some attributes eg. dexterity and agility can surprise sometimes.
Children may sometimes choose to participate in fights if their village is threatened, but in general children are now more eager to flee upon serious danger. Boys are often slightly more eager to fight than girls who wisely rather run to alarm adults, and even the neighbouring villages if need be.

- added: withes are auto-selected when making fences

- added: roasting (turnips) in embers

Roasting in embers requires good amount of embers so it can't be expected to work in the remains of just any little fire. The fire should be burning for several hours before enough hot embers will remain for the method to work. For this reason roasting in embers is usually proceeded after substantial fire was lighted anyway out of necessity. It takes about an hour for turnips to cook in embers.
For the convenience of timing you can start roasting in embers already when the fire is clearly dying and about to burn out soon, given that enough embers has been produced already.

- modding add: new cookery method tag [ember-roast]

Using this tag the associated food item is prepared by the ember-roast method. Glowing embers automatically becomes a requirement when using the tag.

- added: chat option to ask location of the village water supply

"Ask for directions" chat section now has an option to ask location of the village water supply.

- added: configurable display of units in imperial or metric system with more precision

There's now configuration option to choose which system of measurement, imperial or metric, you wish to use for displaying units in the game. The default is to use imperial system, and it can be changed from in-game setup options menu.

- added: craftable fishhooks and fishing rod

You can now craft a fishing rod, and wooden and bone fishhooks. Fishing rod item description now also tells the type of the hook attached eg. "Fishing rod with wooden hook".

- added: fishhook material matters to its effectiveness

Iron hooks are the best kind, then come bone hooks, and wooden hooks are the least effective.

- added: usage of baits in rod fishing

When rod fishing you will be now asked what to use as a bait. Using baits is not necessary, but 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.

- added: FISHING category to [M]ake menu

The category contains fishing related handcraft options, which are as mentioned above, crafting of fishing rod and different types of hooks.

- added: fishhooks snapping off from a worn out fishline

Fishhooks may occasionally snap off as the line wears out in use especially around the hook. This wear is relative to the number and size of fish having nibbled the line over time. So, with big catches you can also expect a faster wear. If the hook snaps off a message is displayed and the fishing rod gets described as "fishing rod with no hook" - but it can be also repaired with a spare hook.

- added: [a]pply fishhooks to repair a hookless fishing rod

You can repair a hookless fishing rod with a spare fishook with [a]pply command. First apply the fishhook, and then select a fishing rod to repair.

- added: map zoom level is saved with the character
- adjusted: skin sizes of seals
- changed: berry porridge recipe

Less berries, more water and flour, and slightly shorter cooking time.

- added: a dozen of new character and NPC portraits
- adjusted: saplings are now lesser obstacle for projectiles

You can still hit them occasionally, but it's far more easier to shoot/throw past them.

- improved: file write safety in case of sudden power loss or shutdown
- fixed: high CPU usage, especially on some Linux and OSX systems

+ few more fixes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey, now we really have to say that's all folks, since we've reached single post character limit and can't list everything here. See news.txt in your game folder to read the last dozen of fixes.

Cheers! urw_sage

First a little reminder, then a little peek into the future features -- and into nearby woods as well where the creator can be spotted crafting UnReal World gear for real.


Opt-into 3.70 beta

There hasn't been serious showstoppers with 3.70 beta, so there's also no reason why you shouldn't opt-into that very beta-branch. If you aren't exploring the far north with version 3.70beta already, just take a look at here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/351700/view/2980802142084765582


Craftable, breakable bowstrings as a separate functional part of a bow

With the beta-version rolling so smoothly we've been relieved enough to also continue working on the few features that didn't quite make their way into first beta releases. So when the stable version comes, it's won't only stabilize the newly added goodies but also adds some new stuff to explore. For example craftable, breakable bowstrings as a separate functional part of a bow.
Yes, that's where the textilecraft additions will bring us now.

Bowstrings will be featured as a craftable item of their own, and they wear out in use and thus need to be replaced every now and then. Bowstrings are made out of multiple strands of yarn twisted together, but also thin cordage can be used for a makeshift bowstring. It's faster to make a bowstring from a cord and the required length is also far lesser, but bowstrings made out of cords are also always of lesser quality.
Good quality bowstring can last up to thousand of shots or so. The lower the quality the faster the bowstring is prone to break. When the bowstring breaks a message is displayed and the bow gets described as "bow with no string". Naturally you can't shoot with such a bow anymore until a new bowstring is added.


Spruce quick-bow

Another bow related addition is a spruce quick-bow - a new type of craftable bow. Spruce quick-bow is the most simple and quick to make type of a bow. It's made out of a single branch that is cut from a standing spruce tree. It goes without saying that this type of bow is not a high performance weapon, but it is efficient enough for hunting squirrels and other small game. This type of bow is strongly based in history, specifically that of the Saami hunters, and it is a fascinating method to make a bow quickly out in the wilderness. You can see Sami (UnReal World creator) crafting a spruce quick-bow in the woods in this video (on his traditional archery related YouTube channel):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYR91okTjlM
Heh. It's surely different to craft these things with lines of codes in the digital realm than with an axe in the northern wilderness, but it's nice to master the both ways :)

And there's even more features still pending to be added for the stable release. Stay tuned.

.70 beta-3 for Windows, Linux and OS X has been released to fix a few bugs.
Those who have opted-into 3.70 beta release will have their game automatically updated - if enabled.
On Windows version the listed bugs have been remedied already, but now all the supported platforms are in sync. With this patch there should be no critical beta bugs anymore, and polishing the lesser annoyances continues.


Version: 3.70 (beta 3)

** Saved characters from version 3.50-> are compatible with this version. **

BETA NOTICE:

This is a beta release. There are likely bugs, things are still somewhat under construction, and some of the listed improvements will be tweaked and polished further in patches to follow.


- fixed: weather for migrated characters getting corrupted

Migrated characters now experience reset of the weather upon loading them in 3.70 beta3. So the weather of migrated characters isn't exactly same as when they were saved, but as the reset is based on time of the year the change is most often quite unnoticeable.

- fixed: laggy movement on some map areas

This was related to how seeing through saplings was handled, and on some occasions data checks endedup in slow loop.

- fixed: domestic animals triggering your traps

- fixed: small weight units (g, oz) shown in carried load statistics together with false basic unit (kg, lb)

Now carried load is shown in basic units - either kg or lbs.

- fixed: character creation modes "easy" and "too easy" unexpectedly quit due to option points miscalculations

- typo: "kgs" abbreviation used in metric system units.

It's now always singular "kg", as it should be.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take a look at original 3.70 beta release post for more information about what this beta-version is about, and how to opt-into:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/351700/view/2980802142084765582

.70 beta-2 hotfix for Windows has been released to fix a few bugs.
Those who have opted-into 3.70 beta release will have their game automatically updated - if enabled.
Patches for other platforms will follow later on.

Changelog for 3.70 beta-2 for Windows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- fixed: domestic animals triggering your traps

- fixed: small weight units (g, oz) shown in carried load statistics together with false basic unit (kg, lb)

Now carried load is shown in basic units - either kg or lbs.

- fixed: character creation modes "easy" and "too easy" unexpectedly quit due to option points miscalculations

- typo: "kgs" abbreviation used in metric system units.

It's now always singular "kg", as it should be.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take a look at original 3.70 beta release post for more information about what this beta-version is about, and how to opt-into:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/351700/view/2980802142084765582

Version 3.70 beta has been launched.
Things are fairly stable already, but as it's beta release the bug potential is higher than usual.
Also, some features are still pending to be polished to their final stage in patches to follow.

Key features of version 3.70

The key features of version 3.70 version deal with the moon and the moonlight, fibre processing with new textilecraft skill, snow penalty for all the creatures and snow crust, new character portraits, tying equipment adjustments, craftable fishing rods and usage of baits, option for metric units, and so on.
The list of additions and fixes is long and you can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.

We think you may want to opt-into 3.70 beta now...

How to opt-into beta release
This is password protected beta-releasae.
The password you need to know is: 370betaXXXZZZ

• Close UnReal World if you happen to be playing it right now.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam games library and select "Properties".
  
• Select "Betas" tab.
  
• Enter the password mentioned above into 'Beta access code to unlock private betas' field, and press [CHECK CODE].
  
• Now 3.70 beta is available.
  
• Select "3.70 beta" in the dropdown box ('Select the beta you would like to opt into').
  
• Close the dialog, the game updates, enjoy!
  

Steam Summer Sale is on!

So lay back, wipe the sweat off your forehead, and feel free to enter into the far north for discounted price. It's easier there in the summer - you'll see.

And before the sale is over, a new release will be launched.


Sami (UnReal World creator) may seem outwardly calm and laid back, but on the inside he is actively preparing for release of UnReal World version 3.70 - which will take place before the summer sale is over.

The Steam Open World Sale has begun and we wholeheartedly cherish this special event and celebration of infinite exploration. It's very much our genre, since early 90s, and acknowledged with (debatable) merits such as ...



But we don't really want to ramble about the game. See, the store page shows and tells all you need to know. Now feel free to lose yourself in the most intricate, detailed and enchanting iron-age game world for discounted price.

Then, let's move on to additional content to celebrate the special open world event for real...

Picture feed from the real world

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 [i]Hornankallio cliff Sami takes a look at the familiar landscape - not too far away from his development chambers.[/i]


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! urw_sage urw_sage

Code is pouring and bubbling in development chambers as we head towards yet another version update. And now it's a little sneak preview time with our textilecraft test character Kuitu Kaumolainen ...

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

The last weekend some quite exciting weather engine achievements and accompanying real life adventures were made as Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer) spent some creative time together.
Now there are two new essential weather features on the table - both still somewhat under construction, but most likely to be seen in the next version.

And the features are...

The moon

Our weather engine now models the moon in detail, with its' changing phases and moonlight affecting to the nighttime visibility and brightness. Lots of tuning is still pending, but we can already see that the full-moon nights in the game will be a different experience.Especially during the darkest seasons moonlight can be a of great help and extended the available hours for working, hunting or travelling. Just have a look at the screenshot compilation below.


Left: A casual midnight by the lake in dirt month as it appears currently in the game.
Right: The same scenery with the new moon code in action. It's full moon and our nighttime visibility is a much different.


Snow crust

Snow crust is a springtime phenomena where surface of the snowpack becomes so hard that it can completely support a walking or skiing person. The crust results from partial melting of the snow surface by warm spring day sunlight followed by re-freezing when the temperature drops again, usually after the sunset. The crust normally only lasts for part of the day, but being able to travel on snow without sinking in there at all is a great asset for a hunter. Elks were traditionally hunted on skis during crust as it can't support the heavy animals and hunter gliding on crust with skis now became much faster than their prey. Lots of work is still needed before snow crust support is all coded, but that's the intention. Now it also requires proper snow penalty to be added for NPCs and animals, and reworking the skiing code to some extent too. (And if you were thinking of skiing NPCs so were we.)


The last weekend it was both full moon and snow crust possibility, so we also went experiencing these things in real life. Naturally these both are familiar experiences already, and as countryside kids we've learned possibilities of snow crust for work and leisure all the way from our childhood. But if you'd like to see the magic of skiing in moonlight without any artificial light, or get an idea about difference between skiing in slushy spring snow compared to the crust, we've got a short videoclip for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOcb_cm5UkE

[h3]What kinds of rituals were involved in eating during Iron-Age?
Which UnReal World foods the dev would like to try out?
Would players find the games food tasty?
How do flatbreads or ember-roasted turnips actually look like when cooked?[/h3]

An exhibition about video game food culture has opened at Finnish Museum of Games.
UnReal World is featured in the exhibition in many ways ...
... and the most delicious parts are now served to you within a special downloadable content!

The Cake is a Lie exhibition is on display 24.1.2021 31.8.2021 at Finnish Museum of Games, Tampere, Finland. Even though visiting the physical exhibition is not a possibility for most of us everyone can still get a good taste of it with downloadable publication they have made available.


Deep and delicious downloadable content

From Screen to Plate is an expansion, or DLC to the exhibition. This downloadable .pdf publication explores the writing of videogame food blogs and books, glances at cooking simulators, and marvels at UnReal Worlds Iron Age eating habits through an interview and an entire menu to try out.

UnReal World menu is based on the actual dishes you can cook in the game, but now with the recipes and instructions printed out you can try cooking them for real. In the interview Sami (UnReal World developer) talks about the food and its meaning in the game, also covering historical viewpoints and folklore behind the game mechanics.

This publication is really something to take a look at to learn more about the food in UnReal World, and in some other games too. You can download the publication from the links below. There's English and Finnish edition available.

"The Cake is a Lie - from Screen to Plate DLC" (in English)
"Kakku on vale - ruudulta lautaselle"-julkaisu" (in Finnish)


The publication is also available as printed A5 booklet for those who have an opportunity to go see the physical exhibition.

[h3]Thanks and respect for the Finnish Museum of Games and organizers for the exhibition and the publication. It was our pleasure to participate, and the outcome is plain yummy.
[/h3]

For those who can understand it (or just enjoy listening to foreign language) here's curators say and a sneak peak into the exhibition in finnish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqA06pNmWN4

Cheers! Keep on roasting in the free world...
urw_fire

We wish You all happy 2021!

This comes perhaps a little late, but the timing gives us an opportunity to remind you of few things. Firstly, there's till time to enter UnReal World for discounted price before the Winter Sale 2020 turns to its end. And secondly, our new video greetings have been released just today.


Happy this year!

A fresh video greeting "Survivor's Feast" is now up in the video greetings DLC package.

We have a habit of occasionally creating characteristic video greetings with varying themes to thank and delight the supporters. These video works have been brought on Steam as a free DLC for UnReal World Steam players.

Feel free to add Video Greetings to your cart if you like. The package now contains seven video greetings in total, and more will follow in time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/505100/UnReal_World__Video_greetings/

If you grab the Video Greetings DLC you'll find the videos within your local UnReal World files in BonusMaterial/ folder. And the game main menu also shows BONUS MATERIAL option which guides you to the right folder.

Cheers!

The midwinter and holiday season is at hand, and Steam Winter sale has begun.
Now let us send you our very best and most delicious Season's Greetings,
as it's time to celebrate the period with Iron-Age feastings.

You may be aware that over the years we have practiced and experimented with many different survival, bushcraft and traditional skills and techniques to gain firsthand knowledge of the ways of the ancients, and to add a special touch of realism to the game mechanics. Practise what you code, so to speak.

This midwinter we tried out quite ambitious Iron-Age cooking as well. These are the kind of dishes you can prepare in UnReal World too, but they surely taste good in our time too.


Roasting turnips on embers.


Flatbreads and cooked turnips.


Tasty bits of broadbean-turnip-mushroom stew.


Let the Iron-Age feasting start.

This is not our first go with traditional food for traditional devs, but the first time it's been carried out and documented this precisely. The reason for this delicious study is an exciting upcoming exhibition.
In 2021 Suomen Pelimuseo (The Finnish Museum of Games) is arranging an exhibition about the food in videogames. In addition to insight about the subject in various videogames there shall be a publication presenting different menus from different games with recipies you can try out yourself. UnReal World is one of the titles included. We'll let you know when the exhibition starts.

But now let's survive the midwinter, feast as everyone prefers, and see you again in 2021.

Cheers!

Once again we are taking part in the ongoing Halloween Kekri Sale with the pleasing numbers and haunting imagery. So let the new adventurers be respected with the discount, and the ancestral spirits with our special Kekri costumes and customs...

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.

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?
Yes. He dresses up as Kekripukki.


Well, hello there, any foods or drinks to offer? Some purchases will do as well.

Kekri-themed title screen
Again this year the we have launched a special Kekri-themed game title screen for duration of this sale & festivity period. So just enter UnReal World for more haunting imagery.


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.

urw_sageurw_fireurw_tree

For a short period of time a pathway has opened to get into the realms of certain traditional roguelikes for discounted price.
Steam offers Awesome Traditional Roguelikes bundle - with UnReal World naturally included - until 13th of August. We, and all the games included, also offer individual Daily Deals so you can decide whether you wish to pick a good fistful roguelikes, or just a selected one.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15790/The_Traditional_Roguelikes_Bundle/

So, there's still summer left and there are no showstoppers discovered in the latest version -- that equals getting off to holidays now.

We can call this latter summer holiday, and I have feeling I'll spend quite a long one. It's likely autumn, or early winter, before we get back to development chambers again. You can still reach me by e-mail, but expect delays with replies. And on rainy days I may rarely pop up at the community hub too. You'll surely hear from me every now and then even during this holiday period, but I'll be far more absent than present. Take care, help each others out, stay safe and have some good times and adventures!

Off to holidays then...

Hey, we have a new release out now!

And hey, the Summer Sale still continues for a little while, so the quick ones can take a tactical advantage to get straight into version 3.63 for discounted price.

And well, 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 here's a moody image of certain real world item which you can now find in UnReal World too.

[h3]...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.[/h3]


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. Youll find the option from [M]ake menu -> uilding -> [W]ooden building.

[b] - 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. Theres 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 [U]tility 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. Theres 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.
Theres 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 its 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! urw_sage

Summer Sale has started allowing you to get UnReal World and enter the far North in discounted price.
Simple as that.

And before the sale is over, there will be a new patch released.
Look forward to that.

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

We have some good news for you!
There is UnReal World Mobile Controller app now available for Android devices and it 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.

Find the UnReal World Mobile Controller at Google Play.
Mobile Controller Full version
Mobile Controller 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 (UnReal World co-designer) did the coding.
This thing has been cooking for quite some time and now it's officially released.

Mobile Controller works with UnReal World version 3.62 onwards.

It's time for the first release of 2020. Version 3.62 now released consists of some half a dozen additions and dozen of fixes as follows:

[h3][h2]Version 3.62 changelog[/h2][/h3]

Version: 3.62 (stable)

** 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

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers! urw_sage

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 69 days since the last announcement. So on average there should be around 966 new lines of code and 103 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.

It's evident that you have noticed it already...

[h2]Steam Winter Sale has begun[/h2]
...but we thought of reminding you personally in case you want to give it a shot.


Sami (creator) and Erkka (co-designer) in the real world, not too far away from the development chambers.

We've given our shots for this winter and are ready to enter the holiday season.
The last release of this year (version 3.61) came live just a few days ago and has been happily received.

[h3]Best of the season to all of you, and see you again after yet another winter solstice![/h3]

Last update of the year 2019 is live now.
In addition to fistful of bugfixes there's also a small bag of new features of which some are long-awaited and suggested improvements. Enjoy!


Version 3.61 changelog - with some screenshots

Saved characters from previous versions (3.40 ->) are compatible with this version.


- added: companions can help you with hauling and pushing items

Unoccupied companions spontaneously help you when pushing or hauling heavy loads is being proceeded.

- added: fence gate

Gates can be [o]pened and [c]losed just like doors. They can be also built by player character from [M]ake menu under uilding options.


Screenshot from version 3.61.
This settler is happy to finally be able to add gates to his fence. There are two gates to be seen in half-constructed pen.

[b] - added: when [C]ommanding animals the animal name is displayed in the menu title

For example, if you would command a dog called Rekku the menu title appear as:
"ANIMAL COMMANDS: REKKU"
This helps owners of multiple animals to be sure they chose to command the desired one.

- added: target selection if multiple creatures occupy the same location where an action is to be done

If there are multiple creatures at the location where you proceed to execute certain actions
you will be asked to select the target creature. This applies to following actions:

- melee attack
- packing and unpacking animals
- looking at the location

- added: limping and animal size tracking information

When examining tracks now you can also see if the creature is limping. This requires character's TRACKING skill to be 25% or more. Severity of the actual leg injury can't be interpreted so crippled animals also leave limping tracks.
Animal size, big or small, can be also seen from their tracks now. This is so obvious that only absolutely untrained trackers will fail to notice it.
Moreover, the actual track graphics are also shown smaller or larger depending on the creature size. Notice that as the young animals smaller in size their tracks pretty much always appear as small ones.
The new information is displayed in tracking messages for example like this:
"You see here fresh limping tracks of small elk..."


Screenshot from version 3.61.
A flock of forest reindeers have escaped from the hunter. There's bunch of tracks to be seen, and now we really want find out where did the crippled one go.

- added: tree in front of the character automatically selected when cutting branches

You don't have to specify a direction for cutting and peeling actions if there's a tree in
front the character you. That tree is always automatically selected for these actions.

- added: chat option to ask for a sage in the village

When chatting with NPCs there's now a way to find out ask if there's a sage in the village. "Is there a sage around?" chat line can be found from "Ask for help/company" chat options. If there's a sage you will be told his whereabouts in the village.

- changed: need for heated room, fireplace or fire are checked first in cookery recipes

It's more convenient that way as you aren't bothered with meaningless ingredient selections if these requirements aren't met.

- fixed: failed hideworking with "somebody else got the skin" message diplayed and no skin obtained

This rare occurrence might happen if the hideworking got cancelled at the very last minute of the hideworking process.

- fixed: agriculture graphics representing a planted tile disappearing soon after planting certain crops

This was a result of crops mistakenly entering wintering state if the planting was done early enough, and thus the planted graphics was removed. They still sprouted properly though.

- fixed: wrong inventory weight with certain startup scenarios

When starting a new character the inventory weight was displayed wrong until you made your first move.

- fixed: gaining skill options during character creation by hovering over encyclopedia hotspot

- fixed: wrong tying equipment requirements when making patches of items

This was noted eg. when making arrows. Crafting multiple arrows mistakenly increased both tying equipment length and amount requirements.

- fixed: pushing duplicates items

The issue was related to ice breaking messing up item data while pushing action was proceeded.

- typo corrected: "coffing" -> "coughing" in herb effects dialog

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers! urw_sage

Autumn Sale
The dev's cat said it.
Autumn Sale is on, allowing you to enter the far north with discounted price.


Winter update is coming
Autumn is actually long gone here in Finland and the winter is coming -- and so is yet another update. The latest major UnReal World release 3.60 is still warm but we're already heading for a new patch before the year is over. So be prepared. It's gonna be about bugfixes, extending some new goodies the latest major version launched, and also a bunch of little suggestions featured.


Aaand here we'll take moment to get your full attention with hi-res winter scenery with the dev and cat. The cat is on the left, if you are new to UnReal World and were wondering.


Steam Awards
Oh yes. 2019 Steam Awards is also going on. If you're hesitating what to vote for The Labor of Love Award it seems like UnReal World kind of fits in there. The criteria speaks of things like:
This game has been out for a while.
Yes. Since 1992. 28 years or so.
The team is well past the first unveiling of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation.
Oh yes. Continuos development since 1992.
This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years.
Yep. I think we said something about very recent and near future patches already in this post.

You'll find the nomination buttons on the store page.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now you should have plenty of buttons to click and stuff to do, so let's continue later on.
Best of the autumn winter to all of you!

Sale & Release
Now don't spook out, but UnReal World version 3.60 is now live. The beta period for this version is over and the new version is auto-updating for the game owners on Steam as we speak. You can find more details about the release below, and we're sure you have already noticed that we are taking part in the ongoing Halloween Kekri Sale big time with the pleasing numbers and content images.
Join us... into the Far North we shall take you...


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.

By the way, we are coming up with Kekri-themed title screen which updates to your UnReal World at some point during this sale & festivity period.


Version 3.60
Those who participated in 3.60 beta branch already know what it is about. For those who only now got their hands on it we'll briefly mention that the key features deal with NPCs, companions, domestic animals, village properties, and crafting additions. You can find the full changelog in this previous beta release post:
https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791441301369/announcements/detail/1589132691050003005

And since that previous beta release, we've worked out the following for this 3.60 stable release:

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.

urw_sageurw_fireurw_tree

Windows players have been able to explore version 3.60 beta branch for few weeks already, and now we have built and synced in also Linux and MacOS versions.

There's been few hotfix patches already, and all the supported platforms are up-to-date with them. Things have been stable and playable, and hopefully the trend will continue with Linux and MacOS builds. Our to-do list is still not completed so polishing and expanding many features continue as we stride towards the stable tag.

If you have already opted into 3.60 beta branch, the following is no news for you, but for the convenience we'll repeat the instructions and changelog here.

Key features of version 3.60
The key features of version 3.60 version deal with NPCs, companions, domestic animals, village properties, and crafting additions. The list of additions and fixes is long and you can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.

One of the most awaited additions is wandering NPCs now actively hunting animals on detailed map level. This opens up possibilities for numerous exciting incidents to take place as the woods with hunters and their game now becomes far more alive and complex than before.


Screenshot from version 3.60beta. The player character has followed an elk, freezing and starving. He bumps into a scene never witnessed before. There's a pile of elk bones, raw elk meat and few arrows. And an adventurer, who has apparently downed that elk, now carrying it's winter fur and some cuts he had already roasted. This is just one example of scenes which could have been witnessed by player character, turn by turn, from the start of the hunt to very act of utilizing the carcass.


We think you may want to opt-into 3.60 beta now...

How to opt-into beta release
This is password protected beta-releasae.
The password you need to know is: 360betaXXXZZZ

• Close UnReal World if you happen to be playing it right now.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam games library and select "Properties".
  
• Select "Betas" tab.
  
• Enter the password mentioned above into 'Beta access code to unlock private betas' field, and press [CHECK CODE].
  
• Now 3.60 beta is available.
  
• Select "3.60 beta" in the dropdown box ('Select the beta you would like to opt into').
  
• Close the dialog, the game updates, enjoy!
  

Firstly, this first beta is available only for Windows at this point. Other platforms will follow in-time. We're sorry for the prolonged waiting time, but couldn't help it, and really needed to start 3.60 betas rolling.

And they get rolling from now on. Things are fairly stable already, but our to-do list is still not completed. So bear in mind that many of the features now available will be polished even further in patches to follow as we stride towards the stable tag.

Key features of version 3.60
The key features of version 3.60 version deal with NPCs, companions, domestic animals, village properties, and crafting additions. The list of additions and fixes is long and you can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.

One of the most awaited additions is wandering NPCs now actively hunting animals on detailed map level. This opens up possibilities for numerous exciting incidents to take place as the woods with hunters and their game now becomes far more alive and complex than before.


Screenshot from version 3.60beta. The player character has followed an elk, freezing and starving. He bumps into a scene never witnessed before. There's a pile of elk bones, raw elk meat and few arrows. And an adventurer, who has apparently downed that elk, now carrying it's winter fur and some cuts he had already roasted. This is just one example of scenes which could have been witnessed by player character, turn by turn, from the start of the hunt to very act of utilizing the carcass.


We think you may want to opt-into 3.60 beta now...

How to opt-into beta release
This is password protected beta-releasae.
The password you need to know is: 360betaXXXZZZ

• Close UnReal World if you happen to be playing it right now.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam games library and select "Properties".
  
• Select "Betas" tab.
  
• Enter the password mentioned above into 'Beta access code to unlock private betas' field, and press [CHECK CODE].
  
• Now 3.60 beta is available.
  
• Select "3.60 beta" in the dropdown box ('Select the beta you would like to opt into').
  
• Close the dialog, the game updates, enjoy!
  

It's september. It's release month. We're making final touches, tests and preparations to allow first beta of upcoming version 3.60 to go live in few weeks.
It is also likely that the first beta will be released for Windows only, and other platforms will follow later on. This is because our OSX and Linux maintainer is super busy this month, and aiming for synchronized release would delay things far onto October.
When the rumble starts we'll be seeing several beta versions on our way towards stable tag as there's still stuff on 3.60 to-do list.

As you may know, the main focus of upcoming version is laid on NPCs and companions. Several new NPC/companion features have been mentioned in previous posts, and we'll hereby highlight one more big addition:

Companions can help you with laborous tasks thus shortening the working time

Unoccupied companions now spontaneously help you with many different tasks. Their labor input helps to finish the physical work in shorter time, but doesn't otherwise affect to result or quality of the task outcome. The help companions provide is imagined to be something they can do without specific tools, but the kind which makes it easier and faster to finish the work together.

For example:
* When building a log wall it helps to have extra hands around for moving and setting the logs in place even if the player character would be the one who does the necessary carving.
* When softening the skin with beater as a final stage of tanning process it helps to have somebody around to check, adjust or tighten the skin if necessary.
* When setting and retrieving nets it helps to have somebody to row the watercraft.

The tasks where companions can currently help you are as follows:

* all the building tasks
* building trap constructions
* setting and retrieving nets
* harvestring bark
* tanning stages of cleaning, applying tanning material and final softening
* crafting rafts
* crafting leather ropes
* crafting birch-bark containers and ropes

The tasks are 10-20% faster to perform with a companion and in many cases having multiple helping pairs of hands shortens the time 5-10% more per companion. However, the benefits of helpers is gapped at three (3) companions, so having more than three helpers doesn't shorten the working time any further. It depends on the task how many helpers is the optimal number, and this varies from one to three companions.

Companions do help you with these tasks completely spontaneously, without any commands, if they are free from other chores and can reach the player character. You will be notified about companions helping you with specific messages displayed right after starting the task. These messages also tell if you are being assisted with the optimal maximum number of companions for the task in question. If you receive help from some companion(s), but the task would be even easier with more helping hands the message is, for example, as follows:
"You get some help with this task from Ahti."
And if you have the optimal maximum number of helpers the message is, for example, as follows:
"Tapio, Korjus and Visa help you with this task."


Screenshot of upcoming version 3.60. Companion helps the character with setting the net.

Yes, yes. Yet another version is cooking up. That's not news. That's how it goes with UnReal World.

But what it will be about, and when to expect a release?
That would be more like news. And that's what this post is about.

Summer is always a busy season. There's so much happening that it's hard to even summarize what's happening. Many of the warm days and nightless nights get spent on recreational activities, but working hours in the development chambers have been also been busy and sweaty. Now lets take a look at what has happened, and to where all this is taking us. Some of this stuff may have been announced already, but it doesn't hurt to drool once again.

The main focus of upcoming version is laid on NPCs. This applies to both companions you can hire for yourself, and wandering woodsmen you may meet in the wild. But that's not all. I'll cover some of the upcoming new features in the chunks of text below. I won't add screenshots this time, but a few selected historical image sources from Finnish museums and archives. Some of these may not be era-accurate, but mood and theme suitable nevertheless.

Wandering NPCs will actively hunt animals, based on their cultural preferences, and also utilize the kills the best they can.

This opens up possibilities for numerous exciting incidents to take place as the woods with hunters and their game now becomes far more alive and complex than before.
The very act of NPCs hunting is propably rarely witnessed by the player character but traces and remains found in the woods can tell a story of another human hunter at the area.
Wandering woodsmen and adventurers may now also occasionally have dog companions with them. And just like the dogs owned by player characters these will also protect their masters.


"Hunter with his gear"
Photographer: Sirelius U.T. 1898
National Board of Antiquities / Suomalais-ugrilainen kuvakokoelma / SUK36:263
License: CC BY 4.0

Companion usefulness gets boosted with several new tasks they can do on demand

New companion commands are:
* butcher and skin carcasses
* roast meat or fish
* make logs and boards
Companions skills naturally affect to outcome of the tasks so their expertise can be sometimes used to obtain higher quality goods than what the player characters could produce by themselves.
That's cool, you might think. And you also might think of few other tasks companions could do. Indeed. Same here. We actually do have a few more things regarding companions still under construction. Currently we're working on mechanisms to allow unoccupied companions automatically to help you with laborous tasks (eg. building) thus shortening the working time.


Well, we haven't concentrated solely on living things. Here's a few of probably the most interesting additions and features regarding item galore;

Harvesting and utilizing birch-bark

It will be possible to harvest and utitilize birch-bark in crafting. Birch-bark is peeled and removed from a tree in long strips which are then wound to a ball for storage. (As a trivia, this kind of balls are called 'Sommelo' in Finnish.)
It will be possible for player character now to craft birch-bark shoes, caps, boxes, baskets - and also birch-bark ropes.


Ball of birch-bark, 'Sommelo'.
The National Museum of Finland / Yleisetnografiset kokoelmat / VK5354:11
License: CC BY 4.0

Measure of length for tying equipment

Tying equipment such as ropes and cords now have a length property, and tying equipment requirements in crafting are now length based. There will be also options for joining and shorterning ropes and cords as sometimes specific length is desired.

Armour and cloth quality having impact on their protective values

High quality armours and clothes now provide more protection, and the low quality ones provide less. In most cases this covers more than one coverage aspect, but always at least the most important aspect for the item in question.

Footwear wearing out in use

Shoes and boots now wear out in use ie. when walking or otherwise moving around by foot. Footwear material determines their durability.


Reindeer fur boots, 'Nutukkaat'.
The National Museum of Finland / Suomalais-ugrilaiset kokoelmat / SU4724:35
License: CC BY 4.0


Let this be enough for summery summary about what to expect. Now then there's that other question...

When we're done with those "few more things" still pending to be added it is time to start wrapping things up for a beta release. I'm quite reluctant to set or mention any deadlines as they usually don't keep, but if we think it out loud then...
It shouldn't take more than few weeks to finish the most urgent pending to-do's. Then a week of extensive testing and adjusting the latest additions, and then if everything goes fine it's time to start final packaging.
So...
...we could be seeing first beta of the brave new version in early september. And from there on, what has been laid in there will still be evolving and growing, stabilizing and multiplying.

How's that? Sounds like a plan to me. urw_sage

I'm a bit late to announce this but it is live now:
Steam Summer Sale
and you can get
UnReal World for discounted price until 9th of July.

Why the announcement is late is because while the sale was launching I was busy attending to 'science-art-forest' themed seminar and workshops at Koli in eastern Finland - a location famous of its hills and cliffs which are well-known national sceneries of Finland.

In addition to presentation about working with the game I also performed an archery demonstration in the most awesome location I have ever shot a bow.

Summer is full of opportunities. Let's not hesitate. Cheers!



Archery demonstration, shooting with Japanese bow.


Giving a presentation about UnReal World and the related stuff..


The highest summit of Koli; "Ukko-Koli".

Things have been cooking and development has evolved up to an extent where a sneak peek of what to expect in the future is in place. We don't have a deadline for the upcoming release, it's a work in progress, but we do know what the core content will be about.

The core content of the next release will focus on NPCs. The most important additions will concern the wandering woodsmen you may meet in the wild and the companions you can hire for yourself. They'll be given a bit more wits, tasks, and meaning for their existence in the game world as follows.


Who let the dogs out?

Let's start with few a introductory features regarding NPCs and dogs.

• Wandering woodsmen you may encounter in the wild may occasionally have dog companions with them - and their dogs will also protect their masters.
  
  
• Village dogs are now released out of their pens to roam freely at the village area. This allows dogs to truly protect the village from possible threats. Intruders may be now first greeted with alarm barks and approaching watchdogs.
  
  
• Moreover, all the domestic animals may now have subtle varieties in their coat colors. Adds some flavour, but also makes it easier to distinguish different pets from each others just by their looks.
  

• butcher and skin a carcass
  
• make logs
  
• make boards
  

Once again it is time for new video greetings to thank you, dear UnReal World Steam players.

For more than half a decade already we've had a habit of creating characteristic video greetings with varying themes to thank and delight the supporters. These video works have been brought on Steam as a free DLC for UnReal World Steam players.

A fresh video greeting "Goto Sauna;" is now up in the video greetings DLC package.



Feel free to add Video Greetings to your cart if you like. The package now contains six video greetings in total, and more will follow in time.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/505100/UnReal_World__Video_greetings/

If you grab the Video Greetings DLC you'll find the videos within your local UnReal World files in BonusMaterial/ folder. And the game main menu also shows BONUS MATERIAL option which guides you to the right folder.

If you're curious about what the video greetings may be about you can browse the older stuff at:

Cheers!

For the sake of inspiration and related interest how would you like a little picture story from the real world adventures of unreal world developer?

This is what may occasionally happen behind the scenes outside the development chambers.

So, I went skiing the other day, and the ski trip then turned into a tracking exercise. Soon after entering the forest I spotted some lynx tracks, but our paths then departed as I went about my own trails.



Later, when returning home, strange curly tracks caught my attention - and sparkled my tracking instinct. I guessed that this might be the same lynx now dragging its kill, and had to confirm the theory.



I scouted the area, found lots of hare tracks, and then the lynx tracks which eventually turned into sneaking tracks as it approached the location.


The hare's last dance with the lynx went to many directions until finally the place where it ended was found, with some hair and (not too old) bloodscape.



There, the lynx had dragged its kill to a more peaceful location for eating it. That was some twenty meters away, among thick young spruce trees. Not much was left of the hare, but a few hairy bits on the snow.



Afterwards, I had to search for my backpack for half an hour as I had left it somewhere on the snow in excitement. urw_tree

The time has come for me to start reaching back into the development chambers after the sick leave. My fractured shoulder is still far from fully healed, but computer work seems doable, so here we come development year 2019. Slowly but steadily that is, as the priority remains in exercising the injured arm a lot to increase mobility - rather than to get it stiff from the office work.

Oh boy, little did I know how slowly fractured shoulders heal. Somebody made a remark that this might be my hardcore first hand research on injuries and recovery. :) Well, yes, going through this actually got me thinking of going through game's recovery rules in case of fractured joints. I've been of the arm sling for five weeks now but it will still take months before I can shoot a bow again, and raising the injured arm above the shoulder level is a feat I have been doing reliably only for a week or two. And there's no way I can do it with carrying load of more than few pounds, so any hard work that requires both arms is out of the question. It also takes time to learn to move the arm 'normally' again, as the early pain didn't allow all the proper muscles to be used with some arm trajectories. It is easy to understand how easily deformed body postures are born.

But here I am, dedicated to work on the arm and the game as much as possible during the 2019.
I've gone through the swamp of e-mails lately and hopefully answered to everything urgent - but if you miss a reply, please do re-send your e-mail.
Getting back on the track with the forums will take a bit longer, but soon enough you can expect replies to pop up here and there.

Luckily my physiotherapist has also given me permission to ski, just guaranteed that I do not fall on the injured arm in any circumstances.
2019, here we come.

There went the winter solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere, and we're heading towards the increasing daylight. I've also got my fractured shoulder off the sling by now, but the recovery continues. All the movements are painful, and I'm increasing the range of motion bit by bit. The official sick leave has been extended until January 2019, and my absence from the forums continues.
But you'll be fine, and I'll be back eventually. Thanks for all the warm words and understanding and wishes.

Winter Sale is going on here on Steam so once again it's good time to grab UnReal World for yourself, or gift a friend into the Far North.

And lastly, huge big seasons greetings to each and everyone of you, from the tiny dev and the winter tree. Merry whatever, fellow adventurers!

You know what... During the past two decades it hasn't been too many times that I have been on a sick leave, or unable to work on the game due to medical condition, wounds or injuries. But now a week ago I fractured my shoulder when falling of the horse during horseback archery training. Doctors orders are to wear arm sling for the next two weeks. After that a new xray will reveal how the recovery goes. Luckily no operation was needed. I just have to rest and wait, and so do you. So, I'll enter on a sick leave now and report back after two weeks.

I am mostly unable to answer to emails or at forums, but we'll try to handle the urgent cases somehow. Not to worry, I will survive. Game development and
My current wounds and injuries screen looks like this :)

Time for a small but essential patch update. Additions in the now released version 3.52 are foremostly bugfixes for smoother survival, but some balancing of exploitish issues is also featured.

Find the full changelog below.

Cheers!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 3.52 (stable) changelog

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

- balanced: villagers' interest to buy boards

Previously trading boards could be used an exploit as villagers did buy them without any reasoning. Now there's a cap for villagers' interest in boards and they only buy the amount they want to have as a reserve. This varies from village to village, and some villages are not necessarily interested in player character's board trading attempts at all.

- added: NPCs will store the obtained timber in the village

NPCs may obtain timber (eg. boards) through trading. Previously NPCs just carried the heavy loads around causing unncessary burden for themselves. Now they eventually store the timber in the village.

- added: roasting meat/fish decreases its weight

We tought this was featured already, but no. Now roasted meat/fish loses about 25% its weight in the process.

- updated: NORTHERN BOW game encyclopedia info + image added

- added: new NPC kid portrait

Still not much variety with kid portraits, but if you are into portrait customization more of them can be now added for kids as well -> truegfx/kid?.png

- fixed: character creation extra skill point issue for 0% skills

Increasing and then decreasing skill for 0% level skills mistakenly allowed two points then to be spent on the said skill.

- fixed [rare condition]: quest generation and companion rehire delays

Long lived migrated character might encounter extremely long intervals between new quest generation and earlier NPC companions willingness to be rehired.

- fixed [rare condition]: bird thief quest sages forgetting about the quest

This occurred only with long lived characters. Sages involved in the quest first talked about it normally, but might not recognize the quest anymore after a while.

- fixed: kids not recovering from wounds and injuries

- fixed: young animal skins were worth the same as adult animals skins

Now the price is reasoned according to the skin size.

- fixed: when trading with NPC the accepted items they couldn't carry just disappeared from their inventory after the trade

Now the excess items NPCs can't properly carry are put on the ground as a common village property.

- fixed [rare condition]: aquatic birds flying still above the frozen waters

This was a result of aquatic birds terrain exploration routines failing to find them new meaningful areas to check if the waters at their habitat got completely frozen.

- fixed [rare condition]: irrelevant quest related persons appearing in chat dialog

Sometimes you were given chat options to ask whereabouts of irrelevant quest related persons in the village.

- fixed: young animals giving as much fat as the adults

Now the fat yield from young animals is more or less smaller depending on the cub/calf actual age and size.

- fixed: nameless villagers ie. occasional blank NPC names

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The second world record received acknowledges UnReal World as a forefather of the genre.

So...

Back in 2016 we got (and proudly hold) the record for longest update support for a videogame in GWR Gamer's Edition 2017.
And now, in the recently published Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2019 UnReal World gets the record for "First open-world survival videogame". Oops, we kind of created a videogame genre, but we do not regret :)

The book happily presented at the end of this post is a Finnish edition, and here's how GWR mentions the record in English:

"The second millennial decade has witnessed an explosion of open-world survival games, particularly on the Steam platform with the success of PC tiles such as DayZ, Ark: Survival Evolved and the battle-royale shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrouds.
The genre's trues roots can most likely be traced back to the indie sandbox RPG UnReal World, first released in 1992. Set in Iron Age Finland, player's principal aim was to survive its challenging and harsh environments. Incredibly, the game was still going strong and receiving updates, as of September 2017. The game was developed by two people - head creator Sami Maaranen and programmer Erkka Lehmus (both Finland). As of September 2017, it held the record for longest update support for a videogame."

The summer is passing, the holidays are mostly over, and the time has come for me to return to the development chambers and slowly start getting back on track with the coding chores. When leaving on holidays somebody said to expect to see at least one fishing holiday picture. Well, unfortunately I managed to be so very absent from the forums that I basically didn't post a thing, but as a substitute for the past silence here's half a dozen random summer pictures for you.

Now it's whole lotta e-mails and post to go through to get an idea of how the community and unreal world has survived the summer of 2018.
And then, some fresh lines of code... One at a time...

Midsummer and the nightless nights... that's priceless.
UnReal World... it's on summer sale until 5th of July.

Just recently released version 3.51 is trucking alright, so we are good to hit the holidays now. Finnish summer will surely bring us some rainy days too so some tweaking, fixing and even patching may take place during the summertime. But officially I'm mostly absent from development chambers until early august.

Best wishes,
enjoy the seasonal goodies and I'll be sure to do the same...


Midsummer midnight 2018, just outside the UnReal World development chambers.

Here comes a minor but significant new patch before I'll start settling for summer holidays.

The additions in this version 3.51 mostly consist of balances, fixes and additions related to interacting with both the spirits and NPCs. Many small game hunters should be happy to know that for example the unreasonably harsh forest spirit mood changes are now toned down.

Find the full changelog below.

I wish you all great adventures in both real and unreal worlds -
and nice and cosy summertime, if that happens to be your local season.

Cheers!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 3.51 (stable) changelog

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


- added: map of known areas (F6) remembering the toggleable settings to show or not to show cultural areas and map markers

This was once featured, but got broken somewhere along the way. The settings are remembered after exiting F6 map view and persist until toggled otherwise. The display for both cultural areas and map markers is on by default when the game is first started.

- added: ask NPCs to find quest related persons in villages

You can now ask villagers if certain quest related persons are around. This is done by automatically appearing chat options within the common greet dialog. For example:
"Is Sampsa around?" or "Where can I find Tornia?"
All the quest related persons, including the original quest giver, are covered within these chat options if you are aware of them.
There are some exceptions though; NPCs who are involved in quests themselves can't be asked for others whereabouts, but there are always enough common villagers around to assist you.
When it comes to finding quest related persons in other villages the chat options become available only when you are in the right village where the person can be actually found. This can be considered slightly gamey in our standards, but it is more helpful that way.

- adjusted: no more multiple villagers with same names

Possiblity of two NPCs having the same name within a single village has been removed. In seriously crowded clustered villages it is theoretically possible that villagers might run out of unique names, but real chances for that to happen are practically non-existent.

MIGRATION NOTICE: Within villages created in the previous version two persons with same names may still exists.

- added: dozens of new northern names

Due to aforementioned adjustment it was necessary to add lots and lots of new names for northern men and women.

- improved: NPC name randomization routines

NPC culture has more distinguishable influence to their given names. There's noticeable variation between the eastern and western names, but especially the current wider range of northern names now appear unique from rest of the world.

- added: light a torch with another torch

If you are already carrying a lit torch a new torch can be lit of it. This is done in normal fashion by [a]pplying the torch to be lit.

- balanced: forest spirit's attitude in regards to hunted animals - size and significance matters

When an animal is felled the forest spirit's mood change and need for compensation by sacrifices now depends on the size and significance of the animal. Previously almost all the killed animals were valued equally by the spirits which resulted in small game hunters often receiving unreasonable disgrace. Now it is far more tolerable to hunt smaller game and get along with only casual sacrifices every now and then.

- fixed: only one sacrifice allowed per day

If any kind of sacrifice to any spirit was performed even the different kind of sacrifices during the same day were considered excess. This was not intentional, and is now fixed back to normal:
You can perform multiple sacrifices on daily basis as long as they are targeted at different spirits, ie. forest or water spirit, or if the act of sacrificing is a part of unique spell.

- fixed: spoiled food items were seemingly accepted as sacrifices

Now it is foolish to try that sort of sacrifices.

- fixed: former companions never agreed to be hired again

Despite of their "maybe in the future" responses former companions did never reach proper status to be hired again. This is fixed now and companions can be rehired after a varying NPC dependant timespan from few months to full year.

MIGRATION NOTICE: Rehiring possibility timespan may appear glitchy as companionship date information was broken in the previous version. For most succesfull rehiring of former companions try it at villages that were visited long time ago.

- fixed: skinning young animals mistakenly gave adult animal size skins

Now skins obtained from young animals are more or less smaller depending on the cub/calf actual age and size.

- fixed: village items getting easily corrupt upon crash

Crash security improvements added in version 3.50 are hereby improved/fixed in regards to certain crash vulnerable village items.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For more than half a decade already we've had a habit of creating characteristic video greetings with varying themes to thank and delight UnReal World buyers and supporters. About a year ago we started bringing the video works on Steam as a free DLC for UnReal World Steam players.

A fresh video greeting "Moment of reminiscing" is now up in the video greetings DLC package.



Feel free to add Video Greetings to your cart if you like. The package now contains three videos to start with, and more will follow in time. As the Video Greetings package grows we'll find ways to keep the file sizes decent. Currently the package consists of five HD video works around 900 MB in size all together.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/505100

If you grab the Video Greetings DLC you'll find the videos within your local UnReal World files in BonusMaterial/ folder. And the game main menu also shows BONUS MATERIAL option which guides you to the right folder.

If you're curious about what the video greetings may be about you can browse the older stuff at:

Cheers!

It is happening again...

...yet another release, I mean. ːurw_fireː

After quite a long period of balancing and wrestling with glitches in the preceeding beta versions we are now ready to tag version 3.50 stable - and also managed to squeeze in this finalizing bugfix release also one long-awaited feature; healing the bleeding wounds of your pets.

The version 3.50 itself as whole is quite package of new content so if you haven't been playing the beta version you better take a good look at the changelog below. As this is stable release it becomes the default branch and auto-updates for you. The previous version characters will migrate and work just fine with the new version.
The most important changes in 3.50 concern the numerous spirit world and spells related additions and overhauls. But oh there is so much more...gender and age specific animal generation, skulls and teeth, antlers and bones...and so on.

Below you can find the full changelog for version 3.50.

After the short list of the latest stable release notes find the long list of all core additions since first 3.50 beta version.

Let the adventures in the Far North continue. Cheers!

***

Version: 3.50 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.40-> are compatible with this version. **
** If you are new to version 3.50 scroll down and read changelogs since the first beta version. **

- added: treat bleeding wounds of your pets and companions

It is now possible to try to stop bleeding of the wounds of your pets and companions. The attempt is started by using physician skill, or opening [F7] wounds screen, when facing a bleeding pet or companion. If bleeding wounds are found you'll be asked whether you wish to try to treat them.
The actual wound to treat is then auto selected based on its severity.

The actual game mechanics of applying physician skills to your pets and companions are the same as treating your own wounds. Herbs can be used in the process, the success or failure messages are the familiar ones, and so on.

- added: crash security to overcome creature and item losses when travelling with companions and watercrafts

There's now extra data save added upon each map load to provide crash security and to minimize certain creature and item loss potential. Previously it was quite often the case that the pets and companions you were travelling with would disappear upon a crash. The same sort of crash related disappearence might also happen to the items you were transporting with a watercraft - including the watercraft. This sort of losses should be history now.
Crashes may naturally lose some progress in the game world, but all the creatures and items should stay intact and be available upon returning to post-crash UnReal World.
Finally, let us remind that force quitting seems to be the most usual type of unexpected UnReal World termination and this addition should not in the least to be taken as an encouragement for safer force quitting.

- balanced & fixed: weight of some clothes

Some were found too heavy, and a few were found too light.
The corrections go as follows (with old weight in parenthesis):

* Woollen tunic - now weighs 4.6 lbs (was 5)

* Nettle cloak - now weighs 2.6 lbs (was 6)
* Woollen cloak - now weighs 5.3 lbs (was 6.5)
* Fur cloak - now weighs 11.5 lbs (was 14)

* Woollen overcoat - now weighs 6.3 lbs (was 5.5)
* Fur overcoat - now weighs 13.5 lbs (was 15)

* Leather leggings - now weighs 6.3 lbs (was 2.9)
* Fur leggings - now weighs 7.4 lbs (was 3.5)

- fixed [rare condition]: all too frequent map maintenance with some old characters

- fixed [rare condition]: sages offering the old style teaching of new ritual for some migrated characters

- fixed: triggered traps sometimes appearing as readied and erect

- fixed [rare condition]: too fast melting of ice in the spring

- fixed: animals tied in place with a rope remaining tied even if the rope was destroyed (eg. by a fire)

- fixed [rare condition]: spiritworld related entries cluttering the data stack and causing misleading hoarding warnings

- fixed: animal pens in the villages appearing too close to the western border

The problem was that your dog might end up located in the village animal pen when entering the village from the west.

- fixed: BUTCHER_CONFIRMATION setup option not checking whether the carcass actually could be skinned

Now the confirmation, if enabled, is asked when applicable only if the carcass actually can be skinned.

- fixed: wounded adventurer quest sometimes generating too lightly wounded adventurers

This made the intended quest giver adventurers not speak about their hardships at all even though
the villagers would hint about it.

- fixed: milk from rams and bulls


Version: 3.50 beta changelog

- added: wounded or starving dogs may refuse to attack on command

If your dog is seriously wounded or starving it may refuse to attack on command. Even the suffering dogs still defend their masters and themselves from charging predators and enemies, but are just reluctant to act as war dogs who always run after a given target completely despite of their own condition. This addition may encourage you to keep your dogs more safe and better fed from now on.

- added: redrawn 8 directional tiles for watercrafts

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

- added: specific animal purchases

Upon purchasing animals you may now get to choose small or big animals from the list. NPCs still decide which animals they wish to sell so the size you would prefer may not always be on the list, but the animal description now always matches what you'll get. For example, if you go for purchasing a sheep with no size mentioned you are guaranteed to get that average size sheep - not a big or small one.

- added: young animals

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

- added: different gender dogs

In addition to plain dogs, which are male, there are now also female dogs.

MIGRATION NOTICE: for dogs generated in the previous version their gender is randomized upon first load.

- added: different gender bears

Male and female bears are now distinguished, females being descriped as "female bear". Male bears are larger and stronger than the females, and may also appear slightly more aggressive if necessary.

- changed: some animal descriptions

There are some animal terminology and description changes as follows:

* male elk description changed from "stag" to "bull elk"

* bears are now descriped as plain "bear" if they're male, or "female bear" if they're female

* domestic pigs now have gender-based description

Previously they were all called pigs, but are now descriped either a "sow" (female) or a "boar" (male)

* reindeers now have gender-based description

Previously they were all called reindeers, but are now descriped either "reindeer doe" (female) or "reindeer stag" (male). This goes for both dometic and wild reindeers.

MIGRATION NOTICE: animals generated in the previous version may still appear with their old names.

- changed: resources of animal origin named in gender-neutral fashion

For example, you'll now get elk cuts even if the animal gender based description would have been "bull elk". Or, you'll now get pig cuts regardless of the pig having been descriped as sow or boar. (However, a few exceptions to this rule may still occur here and there.)

- added: ant nests

Ant nests can be now found in the forest. They are needed in performing certain spells but currently have no other use or function.

- added: antlers & bones

Antlers and bones can be now harvested from carcasses.

* antlers

Male elk and both sexes of reindeers have antlers. For now, antlers simply appear on the ground when the carcass has been completely butchered for meat.

* bones

Bones can be harvested from almost any carcass except for the birds and very small creatures. Harvested bones appear on the ground when the carcass has been completely butchered for meat. Currently the bones you get are imagined to be the long bones (eg. leg bones) containing the marrow. Each carcass yields four of such bones. The bone size naturally varies depending on the carcass.

Antlers and bones appear in your inventory as tools but have only little usage on their own. Dogs do like bones and as they are marrow-containing ones it's also nutritiously wortwhile to feed them to your dogs.
Otherwise antlers and bones serve the best as trophies and new raw materials to be utilized via modding if you like.

- added: skulls & teeth

Skulls can be now harvested from a few species of dead animals whose skulls, or teeth, have meaningful ritual or magical usage. Currently these animals are bears and seals. Animal skull appears on the ground when the carcass has been completely butchered for meat. It is also possible to remove and pick teeth from a skull by [a]pplying it.

- added: meeting the spirit of the forest

Naturally this otherworldy creature has existed in the game world for a long time, but now it is possible for characters to actually see and meet him - although it is still a rare occasion. The spirit of the forest is famous of being relatively talkative. As a ruler of the forest and its animals he likes to make remarks about your relationship with the forest. In case of being very pleased the spirit of the forest may offer hunting advice, or even reveal where certain animals roam.

- added: a quest related to meeting the spirit of the forest

- overhauled: ritual screen [F4] -> "Spells and magic means" screen

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

Previously you could view new spell descriptions only from the quest journal, but now it's all available within the spells screen. Whenever a new spell is learned it will also appear in this new list of spells.

Spells screen also lists some relevant "old spells" which we've had in use for ages and which are performed automatically upon selection. However, most of the "old spells" have been removed completely to bring existence of magic means to our desired new level.

Bringing the selector on any spell in the list displays its information dialog. If necessary, a selection is then made by mouse click or enter. In addition, there are also hotkeys for quick spell selection.
In most cases the spell selection merely shows the spell information dialog as the new spells are performed manually by following the descriped game mechanics and actions. The old spells, eg. blood-stanching incantation or general sacrifice, automatically put to action upon selection. This kind of spells are also colored differently in the list.

- changed: re-organization and removals within the old spell system and spirit world features

* RITUAL skill removed

It was truly redundant skill, serving only as an alternative way to bring up rituals screen.

* feature of periodically learning rituals is removed, but the related messages kept and improved

Automatically becoming aware of new spells over time is history and now new spells can be learned only from NPCs within quests. The good old occasional messages regarding how you feel about your relationship with the spirits are still featured. (Eg. "You feel pleasant.")
Moreover, there's now a lot wider range of these spiritworld relationship related messages and they may vary depending on if the pleased or angered spirits are forest or water folk.

* most of the old rituals are removed

We've saved only a few relevant rituals from the old days, and we are happy with that. Some of the old rituals were seriously outdated and unbalanced in many ways. In case of migrated characters some old rituals are replaced with the new (3.40 ->) spells.
Here's a list of removed old rituals with the replacements spells where applicable:

Completely removed old rituals:

- permission to fell a tree
- blood-stanching prayer
- the oath of iron
- banishing the evil water guardian
- greet the supernatural guardian
- the origin of fire

Removed old rituals with migration replacement spells:

- permission to sleep -> replacement spell: "greeting the earth upon going to sleep"
- hunter's request to catch a fox -> replacement spell: "making foxes to come at the bait"
- fisher's request for a catch -> replacement spell: "gaining fisherman's luck"
- fisher's sacrifice for a catch -> replacement spell: "rod fisherman's sacrifice"
- favourableness of the trap -> replacement spell: "fox trap favorableness"

* these are the old rituals that were kept as is, or improved as descriped below:

- blood-stanching incantation

Works the same as previously.

- general sacrifice

The act of sacrificing is now always known by every character from the start, and has a wider usage than before. It still works as an act of its own, but now also gets associated with other spells as a multipurpose way to please certain spirits for a certain reason. If there's a spell that requires sacrificing which is not described by other means then the general sacrifice does the trick.
For example, if there was a spell described as:
"Reindeer hunting luck is achieved by sacrificing berries on reindeer tracks in the morning." Then, to perform the spell you would probably need to find reindeer tracks, be standing on them in the morning and then use "general sacrifice" spell choosing berries as an item to sacrifice.

- updated: SPELLS encyclopedia entry [F1]

- added: VALUABLES encyclopedia entry [F1]

- added: SACRIFICES encyclopedia entry [F1]

- added: silver valuables as a sacrifice

Previously sacrifices were limited to food items, but now sacrificing silver items is also possible and necessary in rare cases. You will notice the general sacrifice item selection now allowing to pick an item from both food and valuables categories.
However, silver sacrifices are always related to certain new spells and are not completed unless the conditions are right. Upon using silver items as a sacrifice some shards of the item are cut and carved away, and eventually the item gets used completely. This makes silver items both higly appreciated and costly offerings.

- added: more spells

About a dozen of new spells have been added. Like explained above the spells can be learned from NPCs within quests, but there are also some new spells which every character knows from the start.

Here's vague summary about the newly added spells:

* bear skull rite

This spell is known by all the characters from the very beginning. It's crucial common knowledge about what to do with the skull of a downed bear. Killing a bear should now always call for executing this spell at least.

* bear teeth related spells

Bear teeth are powerful charms especially for hunters, and now there are spells associated with them.

* bird and hare trapping

There are new spells to better succeed with bird and hare trapping.

* ant nest related spells

Ant nests aren't merely a terrain feature but also a place for executing certain spells, once you learn them.

* spirit of the forest related spells

There are new spells for both encoutering and gifting the spirit of the forest.

* bear hunting related spells

There are new spells to better succeed with bear hunting.

- added: new spells for new characters

Upon character creation some of the new spells are now randomly assigned for a new character. Depending on the character's culture the given spells are emphasized on either hunting or fishing, or both. New characters usually start with four spells, and the spells screen is shown during character creation just like before.
Of the old rituals general sacrifice is now known by every character from the start.

- added: valuables to be found in the villages

Valuables such brooches, pendants, bracelets and so on can be now rarely found in the villages. Type of these stocked valuables depends on the culture. Even though it is not in the least common for every village to stock valuables the possibility for having acquired some them exists for every culture.

- changed: game-course completion reward "Learn three new rituals" changed to "Learn two new spells"

- added: skinned/cut/burnt carcass coloring

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

- added: BUTCHER_CONFIRMATION configuration option (defaults to NO)

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

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

- added: SPEND_DELAY_ADD configuration option

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

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

- added: EAT_MUSHROOM_CONFIRMATION configuration option (defaults to YES)

Yes/No confirmation is now asked if you try to eat a mushroom that is not completely known to you, or a known poisonous mushroom. Notice that this applies only to raw mushrooms. When it comes to cooking we assume characters being on track about what they want to do. The option is on by default, as it's most convenient for newcomers.

To disable the option (as it used to be) add the following line to urw_ini.txt setup file in your installation
folder:
[EAT_MUSHROOM_CONFIRMATION:NO]

- added: confirmation dialog for emptying containers (with other than liquid contents)

As the contents are discarded for good upon emptying containers the confirmation is justified, especially for newcomers. If the container has liquid content the confirmation is not asked as losing the liquid upon emptying should be quite obvious.

- adjusted: skiing fatigue rate decreased, walking in deep snow more penalized

Skiing fatigue accumulation rate is decreased which makes skiing more profitable than previously. In addition, walking in deep snow is now slightly more fatiguing than previously. As a result difference between walking in deep snow versus skiing should be more signficant now.

- adjusted: fishing equipment (eg. fishing rod) availability increased among certain cultures

Somewhat increased among kaumolaiset and kiesseläiset, and slightly increased among koivulaiset and islanders.

- added: fire burns away the ground cover

Lichen, moss etc. ground cover now gets destroyed from under a burning fire. Only very small fires may leave the ground cover intact.

- added: winter skin/fur descriptor

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

- renewed & optimized: drawing of rain and snowfall

Previously rain and snowfall were drawn in putpixel fashion which was often more or less sluggish. Now rain and snowfall presented by tile graphics with improved look and fast rendering.

- fixed: animals with no proper dexterity/strength being able to sometimes open doors

- fixed: turnip seeds could be used as "vegetable" ingredient in cooking

- fixed [rare condition]: NPCs foolishly drowning/freezing to death in small ponds at the village yard

- fixed: bogbean anti-inflammatory herb property was mispelled in flora files and thus not effective

- fixed: fresh or untanned skins not getting destroyed by a burning fire

- fixed: villager kotas might mistakenly contain "inside of a building" tiles instead "inside of a kota" tiles

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

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

- fixed: missing chance to get also decent quality crafts at very high skill

- fixed: companions and dogs not always attacking robbers on command

- fixed: stone-axe and some knives attack and defense class values wrong

The following weapons still lacked the intended attack/defense class changes.
Here's the list of fixed ones with "old -> new and current" attack/defense class.

* Stone axe

attack/defense: 2/1 -> 1/1

* Kaumolais knife & Northern knife

attack/defense: 2/1 -> 1/1

* Broad knife & Hunting knige

attack/defense: 1/1 -> 1/0

* Knife

attack/defense: 1/0 -> 0/0

MIGRATION NOTICE:
Weapons obtained or created in the previous version still carry the faulty values.

- fixed: too high quest generation interval in case of some rejected quests

Some quests (eg. robbers) might come in your way again too quickly if they were first rejected in the past.

- fixed: robbers occasionally staying at the same region for all too long

- fixed: knife price

Regular knife (called "knife") price was too low (< squirrel hide) and is now increased to intended value
of 6 squirrel hides.

- fixed: arctic fox hide price was the same as of regular fox

Now arctic fox hide is more valuable, as it should be.

- fixed: zooming out at the very left edge of terrain didn't remember the position when zooming in the next time

- fixed: buying animals decreasing quest reward credits

- fixed: depopulating a village might occasionally cause cultural area to be removed also from unvisited nearby villages

Unvisited nearby villages then appeared as vagabond villages when you entered them, but had no proper population or buildings.

- fixed: "crater" villages ie. village generation failures when the surrounding terrain was of much higher elevation

- fixed: indifferent ripe and growing tile graphics with some plants

For example lake reeds, milkweeds and heathers had the same tile graphics regardless of being ready or almost ready to harvest.

- fixed: trousers mistakenly cover feet

MIGRATION NOTICE: Trousers obtained or created in the previous version still appear with feet coverage

- fixed: animal in the forest cover quest completion troubles if the tracks got seriously messed up by other animals

The freshest tracks of the missing animal you can identify do matter. Previously it could rarely happen that you needed to burn the twigs on tracks of other animals who had replaced the original freshest tracks.

***

That's all folks! ːurw_sageː