Hello everyone! I am super excited to share this update with you all :) After a lot of work, both with new content and some major fixes, this version is finally ready!
List of changes for this update:
Another part of the map is now unlocked, bringing a new neighbouring farm, new faces and quests to complete. Welcome to Sunshine Ranch!
The Ranch is located at the end of the Tunnel some of you might have seen was closed until now, and is owned by two young owners that just moved in, and need your help to get their farm running properly!
There are 5 new Quests tied to this ranch, that will appear at your Mailbox.
My personally most annoying issue, is the "fatal crash" or "video memory" error on game start-up. After months of hunting this error, and dozens of attempts to fix it, it still kept appearing.
Due to this, the Main Menu map has been heavily optimized, disabling all GPU-heavy systems that might cause this error. The visual fidelity drop in the main menu is noticeable, but totally worth it, as the game boots up much faster now, and requires much less memory spikes, therefore (hopefully) eliminating this error once and for all.
To make the game even smoother and more stable, another pass of texture and 3D model streaming optimizations has been made. This brings better overall framerate, reduced hiccups and better input responses.
Across the entire playable area, there is denser foliage such as trees and flowers, better composition on emptier areas, and major Locations polish.
Underwater visuals for the small water source with a stream above your farm have also been updated.
Tractor Spawn & Purchase issues have been fixed.
Tractor is automatically unlocked after reaching level 20 regardless if you bought it.
Bonus Leaf Points rewarded for each level after level 20; up to 20 extra Leaf Points to make sure you can unlock everything in a realistic timeframe.
Cows and Calf AI logic improvements.
Cows and Calf general fixes and stability improvements.
Quests unlock order updated; reduced objective issues for some quests regarding overlaps.
Dog Whistle working while driving fixed.
That is mostly all for this update! I truly hope nobody will experience some of the mentioned issues here from now on, and enjoy the game properly :)
From my personal playthrough, the game is running as smoothly as possible, and mentioned issues have not been encountered.
I really hope this is the case for the rest of the players, if not, we will keep working on it until everything is running like a Swiss clock! And once again, thank you for playing and supporting Hillshade Farm, and see you all next weekend with the new update! :)