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Re: The Kalevala Day and 10,000 days of digital Finnish culture in UnReal World
Quote You know.. I keep hearing about The Kalevala and from what I hear its quite something. Do you know if there is a translation, or maybe even an audio version of it? I think Kalevala is translated to English, to French, to Russian, and to many other languages. Sadly, I'm not aware if there are any audio versions available, but maybe someone else knows, if we have here users who are more active in browsing audio book services? But I happen to know one video adaptation of one of the opening poems of Kalevala. (Naturally, Kalevala starts with the myths about how the world got created. And then it goes on to introduce the main characters - that video is an adaptation of the poem introducing Väinämöinen and Joukahainen - the old sage and the young wanna-be-sage who dares to challenge the old master.) March 04, 2020, 08:54:29 AM |
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Re: The situation and stuff
The game has often served as a breath of fresh air for me, and I'm sure it will continue to do so for others throughout this troublesome period and beyond. Hope the isolation is treating you & all the community well.
April 22, 2020, 04:20:12 AM |
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Re: Improvements to fire mechanics, changes to smoking mechanics
Quote Cold smoking. There are a few requirements, fist the temperature needs to be below about 30 for the whole process, meat should be cured or salted for a couple of days first. Meat is then hung in a cold smokehouse and smoke is fed into it for 8 to 16 hours, the meat is then left for a month to completely dry. It is a long time since we checked real-life references for the smoking mechanics. But as far as I can remember, it is namely the cold smoking process we are simulating in the game. So, the fire is not needed to generate heat, but mostly to generate smoke - and to keep the air circulating to boost the drying process. I can't remember our sources any more, but I do recall that the smoking process simulation was based on a few articles about primitive cold smoking methods, and Sami adapted a version which was possible to implement with the game mechanics. But, of course, for the sake of realism it would be perfection have different kinds of smoking processes available. Just like we could use different kind of buildings, like something in between a shelter and a log cabin. I mean, I remember that historically for cold smoking people have used constructions with a fire box dug into soil, some 15 meters of underground flue to cool down the smoke, and then a small wooden smoking box at the top end of the flue. Additions, additions, there would be that many additions to buildings, cooking processes and all. And now we have some fire handling improvements, good! More improvement in the future, I'd guess 
May 20, 2020, 11:12:08 AM |
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Re: Improvements to fire mechanics, changes to smoking mechanics
Can't wait for all the new stuff. And I'm not sure if it's already been suggested or not yet, but when you spoke about embers and smoke, I started thinking of some additions for the scaled out travel map in relation to that, what if you could discover fires made in villages, some smoke a couple tiles farther than the village itself if you have a high enough ability in the eye statistic, and perhaps -if it isn't already implemented in the AI- it's been a while since I've been able to play so I don't know if NPC's outside villages make fires, but if they do, maybe you could spot smoke from that too, farther out and easier than seeing the people making them.
May 24, 2020, 07:38:20 AM |
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Version 3.63 released on Steam, Itch, and for lifetimers
Hey, a new UnReal World release is out now. Version 3.63 is now available on Steam, Itch.Io and Lifetimers will find the release at the designated forum section. The summer sale on Steam still continues for a little while, so if you're quick and willing it's possible to take that sort of a tactical advantage. With the new release the previous version (3.62) is now publicly available at downloads section. UnReal World Steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/351700/UnReal_World/ UnReal World Itch.io store page: https://enormous-elk.itch.io/unreal-world This version 3.63 is kind of a summery release in itself. There's features and fixes on all fronts, but some is specifically related to the lush of the summer. You can find the full changelog below but first, here's a moody image of certain real world item which you can now find in UnReal World too. ...as I'll go now gently beat myself with this one, you can enjoy the new release -- and do the same in there at will.  Version 3.63 changelog - added: separate key command for commanding your pets and companions [!] Talking to someone and commanding your pets and companions are now separate commands. Commanding is now done with with [!] key, and the good old [C] key is used only to talk to someone in normal fashion. The game notifies you about the new [!] key command when talking to companions in normal way, or when talking to someone when there are pets out of sight. These little messages hopefully make it easier to get the new command policy memorized. Also, if you mistakenly try to [C]hat with pets the list of commands is still displayed. If there are no pets or companions around at all trying to command them [!] just displays an informative message and doesn't proceed into fruitfless target selection. Also, if there are no companions in sight the menu for shouting commands doesn't anymore contain needless "Choose a target in sight" option. - improved: fire mechanics Various features have been added to make fire burning, its' warming effect, obtained information and visual appearance more detailed. * Burnt-out fire graphics is related to the amount of fire burned at the site. Small fires leave small remains, large fires leave large remains. * Remains of fire accumulates over time so sequential fires burned at the site will increase the remains. The remains will still eventually disappear with few days pause in fire burning. * embers graphics has been added and remains of burnt-out fires will be now appear glowing red for awhile. For how long the embers will be glowing depends on the amount of fire burned. * when looking at burnt-out fire it's now also told if there are glowing or still warm embers. This information gives an idea eg. about how recent a campfire found in the wild might be. * glowing embers from nearby burnt-out fires helps you to start new ones. This is automatically checked if you start making a fire with glowing remains at adjacent tile. - added: smoking requires continuous maintaining of fire In the previous versions smoking succeeded if the room was heated once, and the process required no further maintenance. Now the heating must be maintained through the whole process. It's not critical to maintain an exact temperature but the fireplace in your smoking cabin should be warmed up properly on daily basis. Should you forget it one day it's still possible to compensate by heating it up even more the next day. If the heating is completely neglected you will find your smoked foodstuff all spoiled. If the heating has failed only to some extent you may find some of the smoked foods spoiled. - added: gradual heating up and cooling down of fireplaces and sauna stoves When warming up a fireplace or sauna stove it now takes some time before the stones get properly heated up and start releasing warmth into the room - and this process is gradual. As a rule of thumb you should keep fire burning at least 3 or 4 hours to get fireplaces and sauna stoves properly heated up. The cooling down is gradual as well and fireplaces and sauna stoves will retain warmth hours and hours after the fire has burnt out. The warmer the fireplace or sauna stove has been the slower it will also cool down. With these changes in action you can't expect to have a nicely warm room at an instant you light up a fireplace. Or you can't have a sauna bath right after lighting up a sauna stove. However, the fireplaces are designed so that they release some heat when the fire is burning. This allows you to still effectively warm up by the fireplace while it is still only getting heated up. Also, now you might notice having to warm up the fireplaces longer and more carefully than in earlier versions to have your cottage nicely warm during the coldest winter days. With gradual cooling down of fireplaces the winter morning temperatures inside your cottage may sometimes apppear surprisingly low compared to the earlier. This is because in earlier versions fireplaces retained constant and exceedingly high temperature for very long-time after the fire had burned out. - added: sauna stove tile slightly stylized It's a bit darker and has smaller mouth now. This is to better distinguish sauna stove from a common fireplace. - added: building a sauna stove Sauna stoves can be now built by the player character. You’ll find the option from [M]ake menu -> Building -> Wooden building. - improved: throwing water on the sauna stove Before it was necessary to use sauna scoop to throw water on the sauna stove. Now it's done simply by [a]pplying a water container beside the sauna stove. An option for throwing water from the container appears when the condition is met. Messages about the results are also updated and now it is told if you get mild or proper steam - depending on how hot the sauna stove is. There’s also a sound effects added so you can hear how the sauna stove really hisses. With these additions sauna scoop now becomes a deprecated item. It continues to exist in object galore, but with no real use. Upon using sauna scoop you only get a message to use new mechanics instead. - added: leaf trees now grow and lose their leaves gradually according to the season You can see leaf trees gradually getting more lush in green in the spring, and again losing the leaf cover in the late autumn. - added: vasta – a kind of broom to beat and treat oneself with during sauna bath Vasta is a kind of broom made out of leafy birch twigs and used during sauna bath to gently beat oneself in order to get the muscles relaxed, body massaged and skin cleansed. Vasta can be made by yourself from [M]ake menu under Utility articles. Making of vasta requires bunch of leafy birch twigs which can be collected from birch trees using your TIMBERCRAFT skill. To use vasta [a]pply it while taking a sauna bath. There’s also sound effect added so you can hear what the beating with vasta really sounds like. Using vasta improves the healing effects of sauna bath. There’s also game encyclopedia [F1] entry about vasta available. - added: collecting leafy birch twigs When collecting branches from birch trees (by using your TIMBERCRAFT skill) you now get leafy birch twigs if the season is right. If not, mere branches are collected. There are appropriate messages to indicate if the leaves aren't big enough just yet, or already gone old. This addition is foremostly added for making vasta which requires leafy birch twigs to be used. - added: shout commands activated when pets are too far to respond to talked commands When commanding your pet that is too far away you are now automatically given options for the possible shouted commands. Foremostly this makes "Come" always an available command for dogs. - added: wandering Njerpez can be met in small groups too Njerpez warriors don't wander all alone anymore but can be met in small groups, or pairs as well. If a conflict will arise from these encounters you have to be extra careful now. A group of wandering Njerpez can also have multiple dogs with them. - adjusted: wandering Njerpez commonness based on the region Wandering Njerpez are most commonly met in the east and south-east. That's an old rule which hasn't changed, but in the previous versions the borderline of their existence and non-existence was strict and rigid. Now the wandering Njerpez commonness is more gradual, decreasing the further into the west and north you go. Now it's been also verified that Njerpez raiders don't ever try to reach regions of western and northern cultures, so that's where to settle if you want to avoid raiders completely. - added: pause for spacebar when player character falls through ice - added: non-weapons can be thrown even when both hands are wielding something This makes it easier to bait a trap, feed a dog, toss firewood into the fire and so on as you don't have to unwield anything to be able to throw such things. - added: reindeers can be milked It's now possible to milk reindeer does. The period when the milking is possible is the same as with cows, but the yield is little lesser. - adjusted: milking period of sheep shortened with few months Sheeps now yield milk only from swidden month to harvest month. - added: character age and days played now appear in [P]rofile screen This info is displayed at top of the screen saying eg. "You are 16 winters old, and have lived 7 days of adventuring life." - removed: character [L]og screen It's been considered useless for a long-time, and it's no longer in use at all. - fixed: fresh bloodscapes sometimes disappearing instantly upon map load - fixed: throwing water on the sauna stove not increasing the temperature This had gotten broken somewhere along the way when adjusting temperature checks. Now it’s fixed and you will again notice the character getting warmer upon throwing water on the sauna stove. - fixed: no message or results of arrow breakage when it happened upon hitting a creature Now if an arrow breaks upon hitting a creature the breakage message is displayed and broken arrow will remain at the location. - fixed: companions that were commanded to stay put did still engage into fights - fixed: continuing early interrupted fence building requires the raw materials again - fixed: character not falling into the water if thin ice at the location is broken by dropped items - fixed: planted crop graphics appearing at picked mushroom location - fixed: when dropping items selecting the only item in filtered inventory category drops it immediately ignoring the other selections Cheers! July 09, 2020, 12:38:00 PM |
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Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?
I have faith in the Enormous Elk team, no matter what. For the paltry sum of a lifetime membership many years ago, I have been rewarded with countless hours of entertainment. I know whatever project they begin, Sami and Erkka will approach it with the same care and dedication that they put into UnReal World. Therefore I will be happy to support any new venture.
October 31, 2020, 04:16:47 PM |
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Going nuts!
I know I'm not hugely active here on the forums, but I thought it might be worth suggesting a new forage food item: european hazelnuts (Corylus avellana). This species grows wild in southernmost Finland and might be unique to southern territories in the game map (Driik, Reemi, etc.) and provide another option when foraging in the forest. These can be shelled and then eaten raw or roasted, or maybe added as an additional ingredient for porridge and other existing recipes in the game. They might also be useful as an alternate bait item for small game that are attracted to these nuts in the wild (squirrels and birds especially). Huge fan of UrW, excited to keep playing and following its development! 
November 17, 2020, 01:22:42 AM |
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Introduction & Question on Playstyle
There isn't an introduction board so I figured I'd introduce myself here, I hope that's okay. At the end I'll also have a question about the game, too. Sooo...Hi there! My name is Karmatose, feel free to call me Karma. I'm an 18-year-old female living in the U.S. (EST). I get the feeling I'm probably among the younger players of the game, but I've been playing very off-on since I was 12-ish. I haven't joined the forums until recently, but I thought I'd try modding and downloaded the BAC mod and a few complimentary ones, and had to sign up to do that, and figured I might as well get involved in the community, too. I also signed up for the IRC chat, but it seems rather dead at the time of writing. Still hanging about though if anyone is on. I did mention that I've played the game since I was 12 or so, but I should probably clarify that I am still very much a noob. I usually only play the game frequently for a couple weeks to a month before taking a break and not playing it at all for a couple months to a year. Unfortunately I have a tendency to restart the game a lot. I'm in the process of learning to let go of my desire for absolute control in the game - i.e. learning to roll with the punches. It's a bit difficult, but I recently got on a voice chat with a friend and was streaming the game, and he's the definition of chaos. He had be take the "Unfortunate Hunting Trip" scenario and egged me into attacking the bear. I survived the first attack but I guess I hung around my father's corpse too long because the bear came back and killed me. ^^; Anyway, as far as my interests, I'm addicted to writing and play-by-post roleplaying, although I struggle to roleplay in video games. I recently started keeping a journal for my URW characters with drawings and such in an effort to remedy this, but found that it took away from the gameplay experience as I'd feel my gameplay was interrupted by writing in the journal. I'd be willing to send the first page (the only completed page) of the journal if anyone is interested, but I'll have to resize it to do so, so please express interest if you'd like that. I also love to read, crochet, and (you guessed it) play video games. I'm an amateur digital artist and graphic designer and I have a bad habit of making all my hobbies into big, ambitious projects I never finish. I'm one of those people where it's all or nothing - I can't half-ass anything even if I try, I'm either all in or not in at all. I think that's enough about me, or at least all I can think of at the time. If anyone has any questions or just wants to chat, feel free to reply here or PM me. As for my aforementioned question, I recently decided to try something new in-game - I never enter the zoomed-out map. I think this provides a more fun and dynamic experience as exploring is more difficult due to not being able to see what is really far ahead of you, and also if you stumble upon tracks you'll always know it, as opposed to in the zoomed out map you might miss them if you aren't using your tracking skill. If there is an animal nearby, it won't just poof you to the animal's exact location, you'll have to search for it a bit based on sound cues and tracks. Overall it seems like it'd be a lot of fun, but I have to wonder - are there any limitations to doing this, either performance-wise or gameplay-wise? I imagine that loading so many zoomed-in tiles might be taxing for the game after a while if it doesn't have a way to unload them. If anyone knows anything, please let me know in the topic (as opposed to PMing me) so others can find out, too. Anyway, I think that's all. It's nice meeting all of you.
December 24, 2020, 07:53:54 AM |
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Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?
Good morning, everyone, and thanks for your valuable comments! Hey, Dark Ark - very good that you mention the legal aspect. That is essential, and I forgot to clarify that. So, here is a bit more of the background details: This house was not listed for sale. I just saw the place had been sitting uninhabited for years, so I contacted the owners directly and asked if they are willing to sell the place. At first they were hesitant, but to my great delight they agreed. And, sure, in Finland we have legislation regulating this kind of things, and there are consequences for those who attempt to sell and overpriced house by telling faulty or dishonest stuff about the real condition of that house. So, pretty much because of that the people who sold the house suggested a deal: Basically, I paid only for this plot of land, and got the buildings for free - in whatever condition they happen to be. Therefore the legal document includes that remark "in unlivable condition", for it gives a good night's sleep for the sellers. That way I can't sue them for telling lies. Absolutely not a problem for me, at that time I was willing to take the risk. Despite being severely depressed around those times I somehow had this inner faith that "I can manage, things will work out." And it has definitely been worth it. Also, in different phases of the renovation project I have used the services of experienced professionals to evaluate the critical parts. And based on that I have made my project plans, and so far everything has been good - the place turned out to be in a better condition than the previous owners thought, so I kind of a won in this deal, getting a nice place for myself for a rather low price. --- Then, an another thing is my sometimes-a-little-bit-tricky-sense-of-humour, characteristic of The Savonian people which I identify myself with. Earlier in this thread I was told that "depression is not cured by therapy, and one way to back that claim is to point out that after 20+ years of therapy Erkka still has some minor mental health issues to work with." Reading that kind of assumptions made me think that such a claim is about as plausible as stating "renovation doesn't help, if after 12+ years you still have some minor improvements waiting to be done". But at that point I just rolled my eyes and ignored the stuff. But then, on the other hand - speaking openly about mental health issues, and about how to recover from then has been one of the purposes of my blog. During the years of writing the blog I've had some personal feedback from readers who have found it valuable and helpful how I share my experience. So that has given me a more deeper sense of purpose with writing the blog. Because of this kind of reasons I wanted to return to this theme, just using a little bit of humour. Using the same analogue: 12 years ago I still had some suicidal feelings every now and then. Sometimes I got panic attacks triggered by small mundane events. Sometimes I had to sit completely still staring into the void, waiting for my mind to calm down for I knew eventually it would do so. Most of the time I felt that my brain is full of fog or mist. And I went to therapy to learn more about why those things happen, and what can be done with them. I had already learnt that those stuff are not because of my actual situation in life, but more like flash-backs and post-reactions to a row of severely traumatic events I had to go through earlier in my life. To survive those traumatic events a human psyche often uses different kinds of coping methods, and for me some events - like facing several situations of nearly-lethal violence when I was still just a vulnerable kid - left me with a tendency to dissociate away from the situation. With therapy I learnt that part of my mind is still stuck with the dissociation, making me feel foggy inside. And that there are methods to work with that, to reverse the dissociation. To dissolve the internal panic so that panic attacks won't happen any more. After a long slow process with the therapy I find myself in a rather good condition. No more suicidal thoughts, no more panic attacks, no more heavy depressed days. 12 years ago there were days when I had trouble getting up from the bed, for right in the morning I felt that my life is miserable and I don't want to face this world. Nowadays I enjoy my life with a deep sense of purpose and meaning. But there is still some of that dissociation fog left, and I need to keep on working with that. Luckily, I have found professional therapists who master some good methods to address that kind of issues. Hehe, and while I have been slowly dragging myself through those heavier years of depression, on the side I've still managed to contribute pieces of help in The UnReal World coding project. I remember there were weeks when I felt persistent emotional pain all the time. To cope with that I coded projectile trajectory algorithms for Sami to track arrow flight in the game. Or the weather simulation. And the random map generator. All that kind of pieces of code have been written while suffering from more or less severe mental health issues. And participating in the game project, seeing the audience enjoy the game, it has also been a valuable part in my own recovery project. So, here we are now. I feel that the therapeutic processes have worked wonders - even though there still are some minor issues requiring further work, I deeply feel that my depression has been cured, and nowadays in my blog I often write about the chronic depression in past tense - something which I had earlier, but it is not there any more. What remains is something more like a mild but persistent post-depression state. So, from my point of view this is just an example that even if some mental recovery processes might take some time, it clearly is so that therapy can help cure depression. Just like renovation can help cure 'unlivability' of a house. Oh well - enough of my personal stories  My point is: I see both my mental health and my long-term house renovation project being in such a good shape that I have more focus and energy for further Enormous Elk coding projects. And that I wanted to mention this, because I'm perfectly well aware that many of our long-term followers might remember some of my earlier phases, when I've been able to code small focused pieces for Sami, but I wasn't in a good enough shape to consistently manage a bigger project. Things have been becoming a lot better, and I find new joy in our indie coding projects. And, naturally, it remains to be seen what comes out of this. I have hope and I have plans and I have a lot of development-phase code. Week by week that code grows into something more, so eventually it will be enough for a playable demo. Work in progress
December 24, 2020, 08:29:14 AM |
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Re: Crowdfunding : your thoughts?
I am afraid I am late to the game but may I put my squirrel hide in? I have supported URW for many years. I have purchase a lifetime membership way back on a dead username which I don't use as I like to think that person I was when I made it, is dead too. I have donated money when I can to it, I have bought it on Steam. I tell my friends about it, I recommend it, I have bought extra copies and gift it to people. This game has followed me from preteen to now, I am almost 30. I played this game for so long, it has been with me on bad days and good and I have Erkka and Sami to thank for years of support and escape. If Erkka is asking the same of me, for support and escape, I will happily donate. Because he deserves my loyalty and support as one of the few game creators that constantly gives. December 28, 2020, 07:35:59 PM |
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