Hey all,

Excuse the silence on the upcoming beta 2.3 as of late. We have decided to release these newsletters roughly in the middle of the wait for each major release for Wayward, instead of the original bi-monthly plan. We are still working hard on all the new planned changes, and even some yet-to-be-announced-ultra-mega-secret ones. More on that another time; let’s start it off with the postmortem on beta 2.2.

Beta 2.2 Postmortem

With beta 2.2, we saw the biggest major patch to date with close to 150 changes and additions. It wasn’t without its issues though, prompting a couple quick hotfixes and quicker patches after the release. We try to mitigate this as much as possible, but our resources are limited as always. We appreciate all the early access players coming along for the ride and helping us discover the bugs and help improve Wayward with suggestions.

We were pretty happy with the release overall, and players seemed to enjoy all the new goodies as well. There was a large focus on balance and new-player experience improvements in beta 2.2, as well as the subsequent minor patches. We would like to continue that trend with beta 2.3; however, we would maybe like to skew it more to the general improvements, bug fixes, and new additions side of things a bit more to keep the older players coming back for the major releases as well.

Read more…

For a long time now, playing the free version of beta 1.9.3 has been reserved for online browser play only. Tonight, we are releasing the offline version for download.

You can see the changes from 1.9.2 to 1.9.3 here: http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/introducing-wayward-free/

While this is not a huge deal, it could be useful for getting some new players into the game. I also know of a few people who have requested a downloadable copy of 1.9.3. So here’s an early Christmas present to them! All files and assets are now easily editable/hackable as well. Everything exists within the package.nw (or app.nw on Mac OS X) directory.

Downloads

• Mac OS X (64-bit) – Mirror #1 / Mirror #2
• Windows (32-bit) – Mirror #1 / Mirror #2
• Windows (64-bit) – Mirror #1 / Mirror #2
• Linux (32-bit) – Mirror #1 / Mirror #2
• Linux (64-bit) – Mirror #1 / Mirror #2

Requirements for these builds:

• Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 or later
• OS X Mavericks 10.9 or later
• 64-bit Ubuntu 14.04+, Debian 8+, openSUSE 13.1+, or Fedora Linux 21+

In other news, we changed up our schedule a bit and are now working on beta 2.3 instead of another patch in the 2.2 series. We don’t have anything new to share a the moment, but will probably share some updates in the upcoming weeks. As always, you can follow along with the development via our Trello.

Happy holidays!

We are continuing our work on the 2.2 release with this minor patch. This one includes some more bug fixes, improvements, UI updates, and some significant modding changes.

We normally keep the modding changes minimal so as to not break any Workshop submissions after the major releases, but we wanted to provide better options to the modders during the longer wait while we work on beta 2.3. Apologies in advance, but we hope the new options and changes are exciting for your projects.

I think we might still have another patch 2.2 patch in us yet!

New

• Added support for shift + right clicking on items within containers to move all of the same type.
• Added a creature taming hint.
• Added ability to enable and disable all mods.

Bugs

• Fixed an issue where an invisible help window was blocking input inside the options window (caused by a change in beta 2.2.2).
• Fixed a bug where deleting game data did not reload the game afterwards.
• Fixed a bug where the height was incorrectly set on the hint windows that popped up during the loading a game and removed the ability for some hints to be shown during load.
• Fixed some improper title-cased strings in the language file. Literally minor text fixes.
• Fixed the preserve action showing up as “preservative with..”.
• Fixed a player head graphic issue that caused some pixels to be improperly offset while swimming.
• Fixed a bug where if you had a doodad placed on a flammable tile, it would not require a fuel for the fire.
• Fixed an issue that caused either duped, invisible, or broken items when they were moved too quickly between containers and inventory while also passing a turn/moving.
• Fixed an issue that caused poor accuracy when sorting item in inventory while there were items quickslotted.
• Fixed a broken text string when deleting your game “you want to delete this game?”.

Balance

• Aberrant creatures will now always give negative malignity on death regardless of type.
• Dismantling and disassembling items now increase or decrease malignity opposite to the value used when crafting said item.

Improvements

• The malignity hint now mentions the special rules regarding caves and night creature spawns.
• Renamed items should now show the renamed name whenever possible.
• The “enter” bind can now be used for selecting “Yes” inside confirmation screens.
• You can now use a raft in any depth of water, making it so you can equip a lit torch before rafting.
• Fixed aberrant creatures not making alternate creature noises when tamed or while making idle sounds.
• Default actions for thistle seeds, acorns, and poison ivy seeds changed to “plant” from “eat”.
• Tinder has been renamed “wooden shavings” as to not conflict with the new “tinder” grouping.
• The main menu now allows more content to be displayed, especially on lower resolutions. Additionally, some new menu animations have been added.
• Other improvements to main menu design with added effects and improved readability.
• UI elements that are not clickable no longer have hover effects.
• Added a small delay when moving and turning into a resource tile to prevent accidental gathering.
• The Starter Quest will now update the quest objectives when an item is dropped or destroyed (removed) as well.
• Containers in your inventory will now show the 50% reduced weight totals within the tooltip.
• The mage cloak has been renamed to “mage robe”. Since it’s a robe…
• The in-world graphic for the raft now matches the item more closely.
• Fixed an issue where some highscores text would overflow due to their length.
• Added Unlok credits within the about section.
• The modding guide link now goes to the new page (https://waywardgame.github.io/).

Modding

• Split onAddOrUpdateInventoryItem into OnInventoryItemAdd, OnInventoryItemRemove, and OnInventoryItemUpdate.
• Added a canDropItem hook.
• Added the ability to get the source of damage via the onCreatureDamage hook.
• Fixed return null not working for the onCreatureDamage hook.
• Added CanCreatureSpawn and OnCreatureSpawn hooks.

Technical

• Particle system refactored a bit. Now uses an RGB object and uses new ParticleType for non-defined values.
• Sortable system has been recoded.
• Version now automatically added within English translation for upgrade message.

Mods

• [Argus] Fixed “See All” not working as intended.

Let’s fix up some more of those bugs and balance issues!

We still have some work to do in the 2.2.x series, but here’s another medium batch of balance tweaks, bug fixes, and miscellaneous smaller improvements. Oh, and a couple minor new things too! There’s a good chance if you’ve reported something in the last week or so, you’ll see it in the list below. But if not, like I said, we still have some plans for more of these quicker minor patches.

Have fun!

Bugs

• Fixed a bug that did not allow water routing (digging pathways of water).
• Fixed an issue where tile animations would continue to occur after a lava tile was changed into something else.
• Fixed a bug that was showing the corpse carving hint when walking over blood instead of corpses.
• Fishing on to land no longer produces a water sound effect.
• Fixed an issue where a never-ending saving screen would occur when saving an older game that used mods that added creatures.
• Added a check to stop errors when dismantling an impossibly weighted item (that appeared in beta 2.0).
• Fixed an issue that changed doodads into other doodads when travelling to a new island after reloading that game (due to save conversion).
• Fixed a bug where the character’s facing direction was not updated when a confirmation screen was triggered.
• Fixed a bug where breaking open a locked chest would not spill its contents.
• You are no longer allowed to place tiles or build doodads over lava.
• Fixed an issue where the new milestone fix was causing the game not to load. This was hot-fixed within the 2.1.1 update.

Balance

• Hostile creatures now break aggression more commonly.
• Malignity from skill use now occurs whether or not you gained in that skill. To counter-balance this, many skills have a much decreased malignity gain. Additionally, some skills now reduce malignity as well (new feature).
• The malignity you gain from stat gains is now scaled based on the stat itself. The malignity gained from this method now starts off lower than previously.
• Decreased spawning chance of claw worms slightly.
• Aberrant creatures now have a cap on attack damage values.
• Aberrant creature scaling now uses a linear progression, rather than a step/staircase; more smoothly ramping the difficulty.
• Reduced plant spreading chance slightly.
• Increased the damage of the flintlock pistol slightly.
• Slightly increased chances of resources on digging.
• Decreased effectiveness of equipment/armor and parrying against burn damage.

Improvements

• Increased overall performance and reduced CPU/memory usage. These changes will have a greater impact on lower-end systems.
• Plants now heal themselves over time (durability repairs itself).
• Fade in/out transitions of windows/overlays are now a bit smoother.
• Added coconuts palms to oasis templates.
• Gathering plants and other environmental doodads no longer reduce their default durability.
• Digging lava with hands now burns you.
• You now receive the completion point for a Starter Quest as soon as you have reached it automatically so you can skip it if you missed clicking on the “Complete Quest” if going back a quest.
• Added a “Close” button to the ending of the Starter Quest.
• Added a “Start Quest” button to the beginning of the Starter Quest.

New

• Added more different types of lava templates and tweaked existing ones.
• Casting your net/line out (via fishing) on to items will now pick them up.

Modding

• Added ability to specify amount of damage with onCreatureDamage.
• Added a browsable Wayward documentation resource: https://waywardgame.github.io/

Hey all, we have a small patch ready for release to fix some of the issues you’ve all spotted since the beta 2.2 release. We are still working on some other things, but wanted to get some of these bigger issues ironed out sooner rather than later. Enjoy, and please report any issues!

If you want to keep up with all the development, we would recommend you check out our Trello: https://trello.com/b/PWX1Hpjn/wayward-todo

Here’s the changelog:

Bugs

• Fixed the heavy lag while dragging items into quickslots. Performance while dragging items has also been improved.
• Fixed a bug where item weight from a gathered doodad would only take in to account the first item across all of the items gathered. This caused the dismantle errors. If you still have a branch with 0.1 weight as a result of this, simply discard it, or use it in a craft to fix the issue.
• Fixed water containers and other items that return other items on use from disappearing when used/consumed when coming from beta 2.1.3 saves.
• Fixed an issue where milestones were getting reset on every game load.
• Fixed quickslot items appearing above dialog/windows.
• Fixed blood still being visible on the turn when it was removed.
• Fixed a bug where you never would receive hand damage when gathering without a tool.
• Fixed a bug where gather with hands still used a tool if equipped.
• Fixed an issue where crafting tabs were launching the Steam overlay. This was hotfixed into beta 2.2 prior to this release.

Improvements

• The order of the thirst and hunger bars have been swapped to match the notifications and messages (and internal data).
• You will no longer get stuck at 0 malignity when maxing out the caps of both positive/negative. When maxing out one side of your malignity, the opposite side will be increased/decreased.
• When carving a corpse with blood on top of it, it will now remove all blood on top of it and carve the corpse automatically.
• Added the “You removed the blood.” message anytime you remove blood from a tile indirectly (closing a door, building on a tile, etc.) and added particle effects/sounds to the action.

Technical

• Removed an unused forceAberrant property on spawnFromGroup.
• Fixed addCreature not working properly for mods.

Mods

• [Troposphere] Fixed some errors and broken functionality while in the Troposphere.
• [Developer Tools] Fixed a bug where the refresh mod section would disappear on game reloading.

Wayward beta 2.2 “Tamed” is now available!

Wayward is currently on sale from November 18th to November 25th, 2016.

Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/379210
Humble Bundle Store: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/wayward
Website: http://www.waywardgame.com/

With Beta 2.2, a large focus was placed on balance this time around and smoothing out the early and late game states in Wayward. Making it easier for new players and new games, but more smoothly ramping up to a more challenging experience for end-game scenarios.

As there was many balancing changes and additions that will alter playstyles, we look forward to everybody’s thoughts and opinions on the flow of things. This is something that will constantly be refined as we go forward. With taming being included as a whole new playstyle, I imagine there is still work to be done here.

Besides the balance reworks, there’s also a huge haul of new content, options, and UI/user experience improvements. The change list is pretty massive once again. Sorry/not sorry! We hope that you spot one or two of your suggestions in the changelog, but if not, there’s always next time!

Beta 2.2 also marks the longest time spent on a major update since launching on Steam. We’ve heard comments that players would rather have smaller major updates that take less time to come out. From a marketing and promotional standpoint, this would be tricky to do, but if enough people want it, we may consider changing this aspect. As always, we plan to do a couple smaller patches after this major.

Read more…

Beta 2.1

Beta 2.1 started out a bit rough, but through a series of patches, we ironed out most of the issues with the latest installment, beta 2.1.3. Thanks to all those who contributed issues and feedback. We definitely don’t mean to have a public quality assurance period; however, it’s just the nature of building games with lots of depth with a small development team. We really look towards the community for feedback and we are pretty proud of our track record of implementing things the community wants. You’ll see a large focus on that in the upcoming beta 2.2.

Depth is not something we want to sacrifice with Wayward going forward. The game will definitely get more and more content and become more complex as time goes on throughout this heavy development phase while in Early Access.

Upcoming Beta 2.2

If you follow the development of Wayward, you will know we are currently hard at work on 2.2. We have two words for you: CREATURE TAMING!

A highly requested feature, taming will be implemented in beta 2.2 along with a giant list of improvements, bug fixes and more content! We won’t spoil too much, but if you are interested in all the great stuff we have put in so far, check out the “2.2 Done” column in Trello:

https://trello.com/b/PWX1Hpjn/wayward-todo

Read more…

Today we have a quite substantial patch ready for ya’ll. We wanted to do one sooner, but we thought we would release something a bit more significant potentially as the last patch in the 2.1.x series. Time to work on some bigger things once again!

There’s a few bugs and improvements that have been sitting on our todo for quite some time, many of which we hope will help ease some new players into the game.

Thanks to all that made your voice heard and helped us out on balancing and finding/reporting any remaining bugs.

Bugs

• Fixed an issue where items that decayed/changed into other items (fruit to seeds, or raw meat to rotten meat) did not shift in weight.
• Fixed items that once had decay no longer are sorted with that decay still set (with sort by decay).
• Fixed an “undefined” message when getting a status effect from a doodad.
• Fixed an error that occurred when trying to repair wooden doors.
• Fixed a bug that made aberrant monsters scared. Aberrant monsters should never be scared unless they are low health.
• Fixed the build version not outputting in console for Mac OS X.
• Fixed an issue where desert templates could spawn in to too close to sea water.
• Fixed a bug that would stop a highlight (from Starter Quest/hints) prematurely if more than one called.
• Fixed an issue where the daily challenge hint was not showing up when going to Daily Challenge.
• Fixed an issue where scrollbars could shift item positions on certain sizes of inventory/containers/equipment/crafting windows.
• Fixed an issue where skill in parrying would actually increase burn damage instead of reduce it.
• Fixed a bug where you could open a context menu while the game was loading.
• Fixed a bug where you would not earn the gatherer milestone unless you were using an ineffective tool for gathering.

Balance

• Monsters have a slightly higher chance to lose interest.
• Reduced weight of limestone, talc, sharp rocks and knifes slightly.
• Abandoned house templates now have a higher chance to have missing walls/floors/etc.
• Reduced max damage and increased max health of claw worms.
• Doubled raft durability.
• Re-balanced stoke fire values to make more sense with dismantling (all items equal up to their base items).
• Slight malignity skill tweaks. Decreased malignity slightly for anatomy, parrying, tinkering and woodworking. Increased malignity on tactics, and very slightly on mining and lumberjacking.

Improvement

• Wooden poles can now be used to stoke fire.
• Corrected how single walls would show up as a single vertical columns instead of horizontal walls.
• Starter Quests now have a back button for going back a quest and skip button if you have already done the quest (saved across all saves).
• Increased the opacity of non-craftable items. They are now slightly grayed out as well.
• The corpse carving hint will no longer show for blood.
• When the Steam overlay is off, mods/link navigation is now done using your default browser instead of the internal one.
• Improved default dialog positions and sizes.
• Collecting doodads will now log what you have received in your inventory if returning more than one item.
• Tweaked the sandstone pond template to make more geological sense. Fresh water is now contained inside.
• The monument and raft templates now no longer have a chance to be degraded (missing tiles).
• Improved color accuracy on many particles.
• Renamed “Collect Object” to “Collect Object With Hands” for less confusion.
• Tweaked some inspection text to mention the new world tool-tips in hints.
• Fixed some tiepoz and tweaked a few lines in Starter Quest.
• You will now always spawn with a wooden pole (to unlock necessary starter crafts and information).
• Tweaked wording on wooden poles to mention coming from branches/logs.

New

• All doodads have unique particle colors and will show on gather/trample.

Here’s another quicker, smaller patch tweaking a few things including weights which has been a new struggle for some players since beta 2.1.

We’ve also identified the issue with the game not wanting to run on some Windows 7 machines. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to single out which Windows 7 configurations are affected, so we have applied the fix to all Windows 7 installs which will disable the Steam overlay (the thing that was crashing the game). If you were on Windows 7 and were not effected by the issue and want the overlay back, you can overwrite this change by opening/editing the file “launch_options.json” in your Steam’s Wayward folder and changing the following line:

"inProcessGpu": false,

to:

"inProcessGpu": true,

If you are still crashing, please make sure your inProcessGpu is set to false as mentioned above. We’ll look into the future possibility of bringing this back/fixing it, although, upon some research, the Steam overlay is not even technically supported by Valve on our technology platform. So, ya, there’s that…

On with the changelog:

Bugs

• Disabled the Steam overlay on all Windows 7 machines which crashed the game for many users, read the statement above for more information.
• Fixed blank world tool-tips appearing on occasion when moving.

Improvements

• The highlight effect that shows up from the Starter Quest and the help/hint dialog now disables itself after 10 seconds.
• Wooden poles are no longer mentioned as craftable in the Starter Quest.
• Saltpeter is now in the “powder” grouping.

Balance

• Many weights have been reduced including: all powders, all fired clay items, clay flakes, sharp glass, stone knifes, pemmican, and sharpened rocks. This will only be applied to new items.
• Containers now reduce 50% of item weight instead of 25%.
• Increased health and base defense for krakens.
• Decreased maximum attack value for drakes.
• Decreased base defense for acid spitter demons.
• Reduced player weight bonus very slightly (still above what it was in 2.0.x) to help balance rest of weight changes.
• You can now only add so much fuel to torches (previously unlimited) and is based on the torch type.

Technical

• The build version is now logged in the console/logs (useful for those playing on the developer branch).

Mods

• [Argus] You can now see the argus item equipped to your hands.