Animal Update and Patch Notes #50

Disclaimer: This announcement was translated using machine translation. Apologies if some of the terms are incorrect.

Animal Update and Patch Notes #50

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all well.

Today we're releasing an important update. One that was quite needed and was a necessary stepping tone for the future introduction of human NPCs. :)

Here's the content:

General Changes:

Moon Phases:

The game now features moon phases. For now it is mostly only used for some magic and for the purpose of night light calculations but it will later also have additional effects.

New Areas:

The map has been expanded again in preparation for the Huntman update. These areas are in the northwest of the map and introduce a new shrine, a couple caves, a new windy area and a water stream that is not always available. These areas add more pine woods as well as some oak ones.
They will also be receiving some extra love in the next two updates.

Moon Spirits:

A new spirit that grants stealth blessings and protection from wolves. It can be summoned from the moon stone shrine, which can be find in the new areas, and will play an important role for the Huntsman character.

New Perks:

We've added many new perks.
Including some new starting locations as well as modifiers for temperature, rain, cabin fever modifiers, and animal populations.

Hare:

We have introduced a new animal: The hare.
It has fur, like foxes and wolves and gives a bit of meat.
While it is quite weak, if you miss your first attack it will be hard to catch it because of its great speed.
It also comes with a new spirit which can be used for stamina recovery and alertness, as well as some other features that will only become available in the future (fertility and luck!).

Trap Spells:

Traps can now be blessed with a fox spell to increase their hunting chances. A similar thing can be done with pike spells, to improve fish traps.

Animal Intelligence and Behaviours:

This is the most important addition for this update. A complete revamp of animal behaviour that has many effects on the game.
We did our best to catch bugs and we believe it's working relatively well. The next update we will be introducing further tweaks and features related to animals too. For example, traps are still working with the old system right now, but starting from the next update, animals will be start interacting with them as real agents.

Duty System:

Animals no longer go on rails and have now have more realistic behaviours.
They will go and feed themselves when hungry, go drink at the closest body of water when thirsty and go to sleep when tired. They will also more realistically escape from you, and take breaks to catch their breath.

Active Hunting:

Another big difference is that animals no longer interrupt the player just by being in the same location. The player now needs to actively approach them if he wants to interact with them. Of course animals that do want to interact with the player (like hungry wolves) will still initiate.

Sounds:

Animal sounds have been improved. So you can now hear their unique sounds easily when they're near you. You can even hear them from inside your mudhut, and you can also hear wolves in the distance. ;)

Wolves:

Wolves are no longer killing machines. They now behave more realistically and will generally leave you alone. They will usually be busy hunting other animals (actually chasing them around and attacking them) so you will sometimes find some eaten animal remains in the woods.
There are some circumstances though were wolves can still attack though, like if they get too hungry and they can't find any prey (because you've been overhunting for example) they will then still go and hunt you.
The wolf perks have also been updated to make them work with the new wolves. So there's that option if you miss them!

Bears:

Bears are also no longer killing machines and will generally leave you alone unless you approach them or overstay your welcome by staying for too long in the same location as them. So should still be careful around them, but you will no longer be in danger if you just bump into them.

Badgers and Foxes:

These animals now have burrows in which they can hide to rest and recover. There is no way to get them out of their burrows once they go in for now, but we will change this is the near future.

And that's all the content for now.
Let's go the patch notes:

Version EA_0.55 and hotfixes since the last Patch Notes:

- Implemented duty system for all animals.
- Added animal burrows.
- Added wolf woods and primeval woods region.
- Added moonstone and moon spirit.
- Added hare and its spirit.
- Added moon phases system.
- Added improved animal sound system.
- Added trap spells.
- Added new perks.
- You can now make pine needle tea (great for vitamins).
- Tweaks to the flavour system.
- Fixed some issues were fat was not behaving properly in the flavour system.
- Frogs, Mice and Minnows now also give iron.
- Carcasses no longer show enchantments when their spirit has left.
- Weakest Fever Status now properly shows up in stats screen.
- Removed the Fire Ambience sounds from the Frost Shrine.
- Metal Axe now also unlocks Path Improvement In Research mode just like Flint Axe does.
- Added Iron Striker to the Camp Filter and updated the description to match that it now works 100% of time.
- Fish Scraps can now be eaten off plates.
- Ritual pyre now accepts Firewood as fuel.
- Wood Shavings Blueprint now accepts a drawknife.
- Carcasses will now open on their "Info" tab by default and otherwise on their last opened tab.
- Fixing a bug that would sometimes break the game when trying to drag and drop items in environment improvement blueprints.

- Fixed Art for the Frame Drum.
- Updated Frame Drum water ingredient text to "Hot Water".
- Alcohol no longer turns back into syrup.
- Removed the Smokehouse Blueprint from Research mode.
- Food Preservation now unlocks Drying Rack in Quest mode.
- Saunas now work in Cellars.
- Campfires now create smoke inside Cellars.
- Fixed a bug where a Fermentation Bin filled with Birch Sap could be placed inside another fermentation bin.
- Workbench bonus now applies to making sinew cordage.
- Having low stamina now greys out the harvest meadowgrass seeds action instead of removing it.
- Blueprints made with a regular cutting tool now include skinning and butchering knife.
- Ghost Bronze Needle now has proper art.
- Added description to small crucible variants which were missing it.
- Putting solidified Ghost Bronze crucible into the furnace and smelting it now gives a bit of witchstone poisoning.
- Fixed a bug which caused Pea Fields to lose yield on medium nutrients.
- Firebrew can now be added to the Garden plot and has same effect as firewater.
- Fixed the art for the Drying Rack.
- Fixed an issue where the Frame drum was asking for sinew instead of sinew cordage.
- Harvesting a Rotten Partridge now gives Bone Pieces instead of needles and hooks.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the Sledge from applying its downhill movement bonus.
- Added Fly Agaric and Boiled Partridge Eggs to the Food Filter.
- Added Sauna Stove Improvement to the cabin.
- Iron Striker now has 100% success chances.
- Making Bone Needles and Hooks now spends the Bone Pieces but you get 3 items instead of 1.
- Fixed a bug which caused the Frost Shrine to affect stats it was not intended to effect.
- Ice Block can now be made at the Frozen Pond if temperature is low enough.
- Boiled Cattail Root can no longer be used to make Firebrew.
- Fixed a bug with the stew which prevented cattails from being added if the thickness is 0.

I hope you will enjoy the update!
We'll be working hard on balancing and improving all the animals over the next few updates. Many new additional features will be coming for them soon, including interactions with food, crops, traps and domesticated animals!

See you all for the next update!

Reminder: All fixes and new content are added to the public beta branch first.
If you want to access them you can find the instructions on the link below. Be warned though, things are less stable there and are likely to undergo balance changes quite frequently! :)
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2868860/discussions/0/600774299444324511/