The time has come for yet another UnReal World version to go live as version 3.85 beta is hereby now released. Being in beta phase it's available as a beta branch you need to opt-into at your Steam Library. This will be explained below. In few weeks time, if no showstoppers are found, we can expect a stable release. With this version we've now accomplished featuring the vast majority of crafting as pausable tasks. Now only a few item categories still remain to be done on our way to comprehensive pausable crafting. The other most notable additions in version 3.85 are also linked to crafting. One to mention is the shingles - a new type of light source with its unique usage mechanics. Secondly, there's now tree species property for big trunks and assorted timber products which affects to what type of wood is needed/preferred for crafting this or that. You can find full changelog at the end of this post, and a closer look at the few mentioned features with screenshots here.

Tree species property for big trunks and assorted timber products

Upon felling big trees the tree species now gets derived into the produced tree trunk. The basic timber products made of big trunks eg. blocks and boards will now start to inherit the tree species resulting in eg. "pine boards" or "block of birch wood". And so the tree type will now start to affect to what type of wood is needed/preferred for crafting this or that.
Here our character has felled big spruce, pine and birch trees and they appear on the ground like this. To give a few examples birch tree is preferred for making wooden shovels, cups and bowls. For wood slats pine is preferred, and shingles need to be made exclusively from blocks of pine. For crafting a paddle spruce is required. And the bows are best made out of pine or birch.
The tree species preference is indicated within the material and tool selection dialog the same way as all the other preferences. Here's how it goes when longbow crafting is initiated - pine or birch board is the preferred raw material.

Shingles - a new, traditional light source with new game mechanics

Shingles are thin and flat oblong pieces of pine wood which were burnt to produce light - especially for lighting up houses during the dark time of the year. Shingles are lit by using [a]pply command. Once a shingle is burning you can drop and set it wherever the light is needed, or carry it with you. One shingle burns for about 30 minutes in the game so for continuous lighting a new one needs to be lit before the previous one fades out. This sort of shingle replacement is done automatically if your character, or companion, is located beside the burning shingle and there's a stack of new shingles nearby on the ground. The character then automatically replaces and lights a new shingle when necessary, and you don't need to worry about maintaining the lighting even if the task you were doing would take a long time.
There are two shingles being burnt to light up a cottage in this Koivulais settlement. Stack of reserve shingles lays on the floor and a close by player character, their companion or the villagers might automatically set a new shingle burning if need be.

How to opt-into 3.85 (beta)

• 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 urwversion385beta Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
• Selection to Opt into 3.85 (beta) appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!

Should you encounter showstopping problems with this beta version just go back to BETAS selection and choose None from Select the beta you would like to opt-into drop-down menu. This returns your game back to the previous stable version 3.84.2.

Changelog

Version 3.85 (beta) changelog ** Saved characters from version 3.80-> 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: tree species property for big trunks and some assorted timber products Upon felling big trees the tree species now gets derived into the produced tree trunk. As a result the tree trunks are now called as pine tree trunk, birch tree trunk or spruce tree tunk - depending on what species of a tree was felled. Felling small trees still produces the generic slender tree trunks, but in the future tree species property will be added for slender trunks as well. There are also different tree trunk tile graphics for pine tree trunk, birch tree trunk and spruce tree trunk. These have been added as separate columns within truetile/trunk.png tile graphics file. When making blocks of wood or boards out of the big trunks these products now also inherit the original tree species property. As a result these basic timber products will be now called for example as "block of spruce wood" or "pine board", etc. - added: some crafts now require wood material of specific tree species Some crafts now require specific species of wood as raw material. This is indicated within the material and tool selection dialog the same way as all the other preferences. For example, you may be given a messages such as "You need a board, preferably of pine or birch." or "You need a spruce trunk." In cases where certain tree species is preferred it's still possible to use material of any tree species, but if it differs from the preferred types the produced item will be of lesser quality. In that case the generic "...can't make good out of bad." message will be shown upon obtaining the finished craft. A specific wood species is now preferred when crafting the following items. And this feature will likely get more widely utilized in the future updates. * Longbow, pine or birch is preferred * Shortbow, pine or birch is preferred * Wooden shovel, birch is preferred * Wooden cup and bowl, birch is preferred * Wood slat, pine is preferred * Shingle, pine is required * Paddle, spruce is preferred - modding add: preferred tree species requirement Where applicable you can specify preferred tree species as a required material within <> tag. For example: {Tree trunk} [remove] {Block of wood} [remove] On the first line a big tree trunk is required, and it should be preferably of either spruce or birch. On the second line block of wood is required, and it should be preferably of birch. In these cases it's still possible to use material of any tree species, but if it differs from the preferred types the quality of the produced item will be lower. If only a certain type of tree species is accepted you should specify it directly by its full item name including the species. For example: {Pine tree trunk} or {Spruce board} - added: shingles - a traditional light source Shingles are thin and flat oblong pieces of pine wood which were burnt to produce light - especially for lighting up houses during the dark time of the year. In addition, shingles are also used as handicraft raw material in the making of shingle baskets - which is a new item featured in this verison. Shingles are timber type items, and they are lit by using [a]pply command. Once a shingle is burning you can drop and set it wherever the light is needed, or carry it with you. Traditionally shingles were burnt in a specific stand that kept them in a good angle for proper burning, but in the game the dropped burning shingles are imagined to be inserted between the wall logs or set firmly in place by some other means. One shingle burns for about 30 minutes in the game so for continuous lighting a new one needs to be lit before the previous one fades out. This sort of shingle replacement is done automatically if your character is located beside the burning shingle and there's a stack of new shingles nearby on the ground. You character then automatically replaces and lights a new shingle when neccary, and you don't need to worry about maintaining the lighting even if the task you were doing would take a long time. Your companions will also automatically set a new shingle burning if they happen to be beside the fainting one. Villagers now also stock shingles and can utilize them to light up their cottage houses. Villagers set shingles burning only when necessary so this kind of lighting in the villages is mostly seen only during the dark autumn and winter periods. - added: SHINGLE game encyclopedia (F1) entry - added: crafting shingles You can find the option for crafting shingles at [M]ake menu under [L]umber category. Shingles are split from a block of pine wood. The process requires an axe, knife and hammering tool such as club. First the block is split into smaller pieces and then the shingles are split and pulled apart one by one by using a knife and hands. One block of wood yields hundreds and hundreds of shingles, but it is time consuming process that can take a full working day. The exact amount of shingles produced from one block of wood is based on the success of your TIMBERCRAFT skill. - added: shingle basket, a new container item Shingle basket is a rather large container made out of shingles. You can craft shingle baskets from [M]ake menu under tility articles. - changed: Staff item type and role Staves are now classified as timber type items rather than weapons, and considered mostly as raw material for crafting and construction purposes. There are no changes to staff making. They are made from slender tree trunks by delimbing and debarking the trunk and cutting it to suitable lengths. A common staff is thought of being about two meters in length with a diameter that fits nicely in one's hand. MIGRATION NOTICE: Weapon type staves obtained in previous versions do work in crafting the same way as the current version staves. - updated: STAFF game encyclopedia (F1) entry - changed: Flail item type and role Grainflail is now classified as a tool type item, rather than being a weapon. For a long time flails were considered weapons but that approach was foremostly generic medieval weaponry relic from the past and quite inappropriate for the game world. Naturally the FLAIL combat skill no longer exists either. In addition, the small flail item has been removed completely so there's only one flail item in the game world now - the grainflail. MIGRATION NOTICE: FLAIL skill gets removed from the migrated characters upon their first load in this version. The old flails continue to appear as weapon type items, but their usage as weapons is now unpredictable. - updated: GRAINFLAIL game encyclopedia (F1) entry - added: pausable arrowhead making Crafting of the arrowheads are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. - changed: bone and stone arrowhead crafting batch size increased from 5 to 10 - changed: blunt arrow crafting Blunt arrow crafting batch size is now increased to a dozen (12). As one slender trunk now yields 3 blunt arrows this is more reasonable batch number considering the sparing material usage. An axe or carving knife is now also required in making of blunt arrows - for efficient rough cutting. You can still craft a blunt arrow with any knife alone, but using an axe or sturdy knife makes things easier. - added: pausable fishing equipment Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Fishing" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. There are changes to the crafting recipes as follows; * Wooden fishhook It now takes 30 minutes on average to make. * Lippo It now takes 6 hours on average to make. * Netting needle A wooden stake is now required as a raw material to carve the netting needle from. - added: pausable tying equipment Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Tying equipment" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused tying equipment crafting use any similar type of crafting again - ie. any cord, rope or withe - standing beside the partially finished item. So, even if you had for example a leather rope in the making, trying to craft birch-bark rope beside it still continues the original paused craft. So with tying equipment we hereby have an exception to pausable crafting continuing rules. If you choose to craft any type of cord, rope or withe the existing paused cord, rope or withe at the location will be finished first. - added: pausable textilecraft Spinning yarn and crafting of the spindle in [M]ake -> "Textilecraft" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. There are changes to the crafting recipes as follows; * Spindle It now takes 2 hours on average to make. Moreover, in addition using a knife alone, an axe or carving knife is preferred for rough cutting of the initial spindle shape. - added: pausable utility articles Crafting of the items in [M]ake -> "Utility articles" category are now pausable tasks allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused crafting use the same crafting option again standing beside the said partially finished item. There are changes to the crafting recipes as follows; * Grainflail It's now made of two staves instead of a slender tree trunk. The staves are carved smooth and the impact stave is joined to the handle with a piece of cord. It now takes 3 hours on average to make. * Wooden cup They can be now made in batches of up to 5 at a time, and one block of wood yields five cups. Production time of one cup has been increased to 90 minutes. Previously it was 1 hour. * Wooden bowl They can be now made in batches of up to 4 at a time, and one block of wood yields two bowls. Production time of one bowl has been increased to 3 hours. Previously it was 2 hours. * Torch They can be now made in batches of up to 10 at a time. Some tying equipment is now also required to keep the bundle of branches tight and convenient to handle. The tying equipment can be anything from withes to cords. * Bandage To make one bandage 0.5 lbs of cloth is required, instead of previous 1 lb. - removed: skin (ie. waterskin) item This item was actually a remnant from the very early years of the game where wilderness exploration and abundance of water wasn't so obvious. Moreover, water containers made out of leather are also somewhat anachronistic for the game world. - modding add: [sucmodqty] tag to specificy success modified quantity of obtained items Using [sucmodqty] tag at the item header modifies the number of items to produce, specified as (num), based on how the crafting attempt succeeded. Very succesfull crafting produces close to or exactly the specified number of items, and failures produce that much less. For example, if we had an item header like this: .Club.(10) /5h/ *COMMON* [sucmodqty] This would always produce 10 clubs if there wasn't [sucmodqty] in use. But now as there's [sucmodqty] tag it can produce something like 7-10 clubs based on how the crafting attempt succeeds. - changed: wood slat production amount is now prone to success modified quantity The number of wood slats you get from one board is modified by how the crafting attempt succeeded. - added: yield information of raw materials, where applicable, is now indicated upon starting to craft something For example, when starting to craft staves there will be a message telling that "You can make 3 staves from one slender tree trunk." This way crafting can be planned sparingly in cases where certain raw material yield has been set. - adjusted: availability of small garments such as socks and mittens in the villages has been increased The chances to find small garments such as socks and mittens from the villages has been increased. You still may have to visit several prosperous villages to find a spare pair of precious woollen socks or mittens, but there's noticeable increase to the previous. - added: proper stocking of skis and ski sticks in the villages Skis and ski sticks are now properly stocked in the villages and the equipment quality can vary depending on the culture. Ski equipment restocking, if needed, is based on the village population and season. - fixed: start-up scenarios generated too close to the villages Sometimes a new character's location and start-up scenario were generated too close to the existing villages which caused scenario effects to spread into the villages. This was noticed for example with scenarios like "Unfortunate hunting trip" and "Not all who wander are lost." - fixed: two animals getting caught in the same trap - fixed: holes in the ice refreezing in slightly above zero degrees celsius temperatures - fixed: glitches with using village trade credit for blacksmith orders If you had enough village trade credit to cover the whole blacksmith order, asking the blacksmith's opinion about preferred items to trade only used up your credit but didn't proceed with the order. - fixed: crawling while skiing These two movement modes were erroneously simultaneously allowed. Now the crawling character with skis keeps only crawling, with the crawling speed. - fixed: running while skiing These two movement modes were erroneously simultaneously allowed. Now running is not possible when skiing. - fixed: felled saplings in darkness displayed incorrectly - fixed: rare shovel disappearance potential when digging a pit was paused - fixed: NPCs occasionally setting fires at unsuitable and random locations - fixed: being able to shoot broken arrows with a bow - fixed: shoreline waters at the village area converted into spring water for migrated characters created before the spring addition Cheers! urw_sage