Version 3.83 released

[Sami]

Just in time, we're happy to announce version 3.83 (stable) having been just released on Steam, Itch.Io and for lifetimers.

Bugs found during the beta period were very scarce, so for those who were playing the beta version already the changelog doesn't bring any additions.
As you may know already, the most notable features in version 3.83 are weapon/tool hafting and the haft wear out mechanics, and pausable arrowmaking and tanning.

This version has also undergone upgrade of SDL and SDL_mixer libraries, which will hopefully prove stable and clear few rarely encountered audio oddities with some system setups and sound cards/drivers.

And here's the changelog.

Version 3.83 (stable) changelog

** Saved characters from version 3.80-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: hafting spears, axes and shovels - and their separate heads and hafts

Axe and spear items now consist of two parts; the heads and hafts. Shovel item now also consists of two parts; the iron blade and haft. Wooden shovel is an exception as it's made out of single piece of wood.
Haft refers to the wooden handle or shaft, which can break over time or upon damage. When the haft breaks the separate head remains, and can be hafted again. Hafting is a process of attaching axe or spear head, or shovel blade to a new haft, making it a complete working weapon or tool.
For hafting, there are now new craftable "axe haft", "spear haft" and "shovel haft" items. In reality the haft shape and proportions do vary depending on the axe or spear type, but in order not to make things overly complex the two generic spear and axes hafts work for all the different types of spears and axes.
The different axe and spear heads now also exist as separate items. For the axes there are handaxe head, carving axe head, broad axe head, woodsman's axe head and so on. And for the spears there are kaumolais spear head, northern spear head, and so on. Blacksmiths still sell these weapons readily hafted so the heads aren't commonly found on their own.
When the haft breaks the head and broken haft do drop on the ground, along with pause prompted game message. You can then carve a new haft and haft the head to assemble a working weapon or shovel again. The broken hafts are of no use and are best utilized as firewood.
Crafting hafts and the process of hafting can be found from [M]ake menu under a new [H]afting category. The following self-explanatory options are available there:
* Axe haft
* Spear haft
* Shovel haft
* Haft a weapon or tool
* Remove the haft
The first three options are used to craft a new haft, followed by the actual hafting option to assemble a working weapon or shovel. You may also remove the haft at will for example to replace worn out haft early on. However, removing the haft may damage it a little bit so it's not recommended to do unless necessary.
Both crafting the haft and hafting task itself require CARPENTRY skills. The haft quality and success in hafting has significant impact on the finished weapon or tool usability. Poor hafting may result in lowering the item quality even below the head quality itself. Thus the finished axe, spear or shovel quality now refers to overall usability with the used haft, and the success in hafting. On the other hand, you may also manage to raise the finished weapon quality higher than the head quality itself with a perfect and perfectly fitted haft.
There are new game encyclopedia (F1) entries for the relevant topics: AXE HEAD, AHE HAFT, SPEAR HEAD, SPEAR HAFT, SHOVEL BLADE and SHOVEL HAFT

- added: hafts wearing out in use

Hafts of the axes, spears and shovels now wear out in use, and will eventually break.
Axe hafts wear out in all the regular woodworking and timbercraft tasks where they are used. Shovel hafts and wooden shovels wear out in digging pits and preparing the soil. Spear hafts mostly wear out in combat.
In all the cases the wear is relative to the task the weapon or tool is used for. Thrusting a spear into a large moving animal such as elk or bear may put the haft under serious strain. Likewise, felling big timber is more strenuous for the axe haft than doing casual carving.
The haft wear out level can be noticed in character's inventory with the progressing wear bar.
Hafts are in the risk of breaking apart when they've worn to about 80% of the original condition. Accumulating haft damage can also lead to decrease in the axe or spear overall quality.

- modding add: new crafting requirement entries

{Hammering tool}
This defines requirement for a tool that is used to hammer things in place. It's used in hafting an axe.
The butt of an axe is commonly used as a hammering tool, but clubs, pieces of firewood or stones can be also used as a substitute.

{Axe or carving knife}
This defines requirement for a tool used in rough woodworking and carving. It's used in crafting hafts to carve out their rough shape from a slender tree trunk.
Axe is the preferred tool here and always the best option, but usage of knives is allowed as a substitute - even though they make the task significantly slower.
The common woodworking axes such as handaxe, carving axe, and woodman's axe are the most suitable ones. If a knife is used the sturdy ones such as skramasaksi, northern knife, kaumolais knife or hunting knife work the best.

Both of these entries can be utilized in diy_*.txt and biy_*.txt modding at will.

- modding add: [nowear] and [wearpct:num] tags to specify haft wear out accumulation rate

Axe, spear and shovel hafts wear out also when they are used as tools in crafting or building tasks.
There are these two new tags to customize the wear accumulation rate as the intensity of tool usage varies depending on the task.

[nowear] tag means that the used tool doesn't wear out at all.
[wearpct:num] specifies custom wear out percentage rate (1-100) in relation to the highest rate (100) where tool is used intensely during the whole task.

Examples:

{Axe} <Carving axe> [nowear]
Here an axe is needed, preferably a carving axe, and it doesn't wear out at all in the said crafting/building task.

{Cutting_weapon} <Axe> [wearpct:25]
Here a cutting weapon, preferably an axe, is needed. It wears out in 25% rate compared to the continuous intense axe work. Maybe the axe is needed only 25% of the time in this crafting/building task.

- removed: hard staff and throwing axe

These two weapons have been removed for being somewhat anachronistic and not that important.

- added: pausable tanning

Tanning is now pausable task allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused tanning simply use the tanning option again standing beside the partially finished item.
This applies only to the last and most laborous stage of the tanning process which is softening the hide with a beater. The preceeding, faster processes of cleaning the skin need to be done in one go.
Partially tanned hides will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: pausable arrowmaking and arrow shaft crafting

Making arrows and arrow shafts is now pausable task allowing you to have breaks and continue at will later on. To continue paused arrowmaking simply use the same option to make arrows or arrow shafts again standing beside the said partially finished items.
For blunt arrows this means using [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Blunt arrow" option. For all the other kind of tipped arrows use [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Arrow" option. And for the arrow shafts you would naturally use [M]ake -> "Arrows" -> "Arrow shaft".
Like the other partially crafted items these will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- changed: maximum number of arrows or arrow shafts to craft in one batch

The maximum arrow or arrow shaft batch production quantity is increased up to 10 at one go.

- changed: arrow shaft crafting time

Now that the making of arrow shafts is pausable the time required to craft one is increased to more reasonable level of 90 minutes.

- changed: blunt arrow crafting requirements

Now that the blunt arrow making is pausable the time required to craft one is increased to more reasonable level of 2 hours. <br>
Number of slender tree trunks required is also modified so that you can craft three blunt arrows out of one slender tree trunk.
Blunt arrows are now also prone to outcome quality modifiers, so your tools and expertise determines if the finished blunt arrows will be curved or superior or something in between.

- modding add: [yield:num] tag

[yield:num] tag is used to specify for how many produced items the single raw material entry is enough for. Ie. how many finished items it can yield. The tag is used in diy_glossary.txt for making blunt arrows as follows:

{Slender trunk} [yield:3]

This means one slender tree trunk can yield three produced items ie. blunt arrows. So, for example to craft six blunt arrows you would need 2 trunks. Crafting 7-9 blunt arrows you would need 3 trunks, and so on.

- enhanced: rendering of the terrain type images

Terrain type images on zoomed-in map are now rendered directly to the screen using the available resolution. This makes the images appear more crisp and clear.

- fixed: being able to fish facing away from the water

- fixed: companions performing some tasks too fast

Due to miscalculations in companion time counters they managed to complete some tasks, eg. felling trees, all too fast. The issue was mostly noticed in woodworking tasks, but you may find some other companion performed tasks also to appear in slower more reasonable pace now.

- fixed: villagers not reacting if you attacked a hired companion of their own group in their own village

- fixed: villagers accepting too many items if they were offered in one go during the first trade

- fixed: terrain type image not updating when climbing across terrain boundary

This happened only when using the climbing skill.

- fixed: the fish splashing and spawning despite of the ice

Occasionally you might find fish splashing in the water even at locations with ice cover. This happened if the water froze again after the spawning had already started in the open water.

- fixed: Bewitched Wolf quest not generating correctly

This quest might have been missing for few versions, so enjoy if it now comes your way.

- fixed: triggered item traps remaining in set status

This might rarely happen with loop snares and paw-boards. The graphics also show the traps being set and ready, despite of the fact that they were actually triggered already.

- fixed: placing any items to a pine tree with bear skull produced the bear skull placement message

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cheers!

[Plotinus]

Occasionally you might find fish splashing in the water even at locations with ice cover. This happened if the water froze again after the spawning had already started in the open water.

For migrated characters who were experiencing this before migration, there can briefly still be fish spawning under the ice, but it went away on its own while i was watching it, when my cow fell through some nearby ice, I think that triggered a check because the spawning stopped and didn't start again. So I think this is fixed

[Sami]

Occasionally you might find fish splashing in the water even at locations with ice cover. This happened if the water froze again after the spawning had already started in the open water.

For migrated characters who were experiencing this before migration, there can briefly still be fish spawning under the ice, but it went away on its own while i was watching it, when my cow fell through some nearby ice, I think that triggered a check because the spawning stopped and didn't start again. So I think this is fixed

Thanks for the follow-up. Yes, there might be sort of an environment update lag while the new code starts working in the old game, but we're also fairly positive it's fixed now.