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!

Should you encounter crazy problems with the beta, you can always switch back to current stable version by choosing "NONE" from the beta dropdown box. And here comes the changelog...

Version 3.70 beta changelog

** 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. - 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. MIGRATION NOTICE: For characters created in previous versions textilecraft-skill will be generated with their first load in this version. 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 Spindle is a wooden tool used 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 This tag defines strong cordage is needed as tying equipment. - 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 This tag defines thin cordage is needed as tying equipment. - 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 Straw refers to mere stalk 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. Other plants can be modded to leave straws at will, even though the game mechanics don't currently have specific use for straw. - 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 It is possible to harvest nettle, hemp and flax before they are fully ripe. This is for the sake of being able to obtain fibres also from the growing plants. 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. Young harvested plants provide less fibre than fully grown ones, but being able to utilize them also during their growing season is a necessary asset at times. - 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. There's also game encyclopedia [F1] entry about POST SPRUCE available. - added: sleeping on spruce twigs Sleeping on spruce twigs now gives a little extra warmth and protection from the cold. It's simple and much used option in wilderness conditions especially during the wintertime. 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 There's now a new NPC type descriped as "girl". Such NPCs are little girls, inhabitating villages with their family. 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. Combat skills of the children have been also checked and adjusted to quite inferior level. The lack of strength is now seen especially with their unarmed combat skills. If they land a kick or punch there's not much power in it. Armed with a knife or so they may cause some proper wounds, but in general children rarely pose a real threat anymore. - added: withes are auto-selected when making fences Withes are now preferred tying equipment when making fences, and they are automatically selected if available either on the ground or in character's inventory. - added: roasting (turnips) in embers Roasting in embers is featured currently only for cooking turnips in traditional fashion, but more use for the method will likely follow in the future. Find the new recipe "ember-roasted turnips" under "Vegetable recipes" in cookery menu. 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. The game will notify about the lack of enough embers so the necessary conditions can be figured out quite easily. - added: ember-roasted turnips as cultural dish to be found in villages Eastern and western cultures are familiar with the ember-roasted turnips and this ordinary dish can be now occasionally found in the village storehouses, or carried by NPCs. - 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: two orientations for prone character avatar Just like with standing avatar there are two orientations for prone character avatar. These are now in effect and changing according to the facing direction. - 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. The option is available within the village area when talking to any village member. - 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. The configuration option name in urw_ini.txt is [UNITS: with possible values METRIC and IMPERIAL. You can also change the system of measurement by editing urw_ini.txt setup file in your installation folder. If the option is missing add the following line there to use metric system: [UNITS:METRIC] You can also configure precision of the units displayed eg. how many decimal fractions to use. To do that edit or add [UNITS_PRECISION: option in your urw_ini.txt. Possible values are 0,1 or 2. The default is 1. [UNITS_PRECISION:1] The chosen system of measurement is only an interface level change and doesn't affect to syntax of crafting, building or cooking recipes where imperial units remain in use. As the imperial units are the internal base units the conversion to metric measurements doesn't always produce nicely readable whole numbers, but where possible some rough rounding will be used. For example, wilderness map scales of 100 meters is rounded to 100 yards in imperial system. Also, length unit foot is 1/3 meters in the game so that cordage lenghts remain readable when using metric units. Some smallers units, ounces and grams, which were absent from the interface before are now also used when necessary. This way we'll be seeing more easily readable values with less rounding needed. MIGRATION NOTICE: NPCs who have their quests generated in the previous version may still speak about quest related distances in kilometers even if the imperial units are in use. - 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". MIGRATION NOTICE: Fishing rods generated in the previous versions now all appear with iron hooks, regardless of what their original hook properties might have been. - added: fishhook material matters to its effectiveness Iron hooks are the best kind, then come bone hooks, and wooden hooks are the least effective. The differences aren't dramatic though, but there's slight penalty for using bone and wooden hooks. - added: usage of baits in rod fishing When starting rod fishing you will be now asked what to use as a bait. 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. - 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 For the grey seal the skin yield has been doubled, and for the ringed seal increased about 20%. - changed: berry porridge recipe Ratio of the ingredients has been adjusted based on the real-life experiment. 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. - removed: possibility to kick down fences Old mechanism that wasn't needed nor working properly anymore since we've already got deconstruct option. - improved: file write safety in case of sudden power loss or shutdown Some extra measures has been added to overcome unexpected shutdown related data loss regarding character file, window position data, and culture data. - fixed: high CPU usage, especially on some Linux and OSX systems The game reached very high CPU usage on some systems, which is now hopefully fixed. It was related to reading incoming SDL events which are now waited rather than constantly polled. - fixed: in villages, building a fire to location with still warm embers was mistakenly considered a breach - fixed: animals freed from traps mistakenly considered trapped and perishing because of that - fixed: birds mistakenly flying still - fixed: character's mobility suffering from faulty snow penalty During the usual winter month characters movement was reduced due to snow penalty even if there wasn't any snow on the ground. Moreover, this faulty snow penalty was in effect also indoors. - fixed: multiple creature selection listing irrelevant NPCs when picking from or packing a creature - fixed: birch saplings blocking the line of sight - fixed: cutting branches and peeling bark from saplings - fixed: when thrown object or projectile hits a saplings the resulting message didn't mention the tree being a sapling - fixed: birch withe material requirement eg. in the making of vasta also accepted spruce withes - fixed: shortening tying equipment not reducing their price value - fixed: resting for a turn [.] at settlement tile activated zooming in - fixed: small silver items not always degrading in sacrificing - fixed: looking at animals with no encyclopedia entry shows the previous animal's info entry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all folks! urw_sage Cheers, have fun, and let's keep our fingers crossed for the possible beta bugs being minor and scarce. But whatever their size and annoyance level may be, we've got our bows prepared for shooting them down.

[ 2021-06-27 16:23:37 CET ] [ Original post ]