UnReal World version 3.70 has reached the stable stage and is now released.

If you were playing 3.70 beta versions, you should know that there's also new content added since the last beta. And if you weren't playing beta versions at all, then prepare to discover a lot. Characters from the previous versions (since 3.50) are compatible with the new version.
You'll find changelogs later in this post, but first a little look at the key features with a few screenshots.

Key features of version 3.70

The key features of version 3.70 version deal with the moon and the moonlight, fibre processing with new textilecraft skill, snow penalty for all the creatures and snow crust, lots of new character portraits, tying equipment adjustments and additions, crafting fishing rods and hooks and usage of baits, option for metric units, and so on. The list of additions and fixes is long and you can find the full changelog at the bottom of this post.

Trudging through the deep snow the escaping elk tires itself easily while the hunter gliding with skis on snow crust travels easily.

There are lots of new character portraits added, and also an option to ask whereabouts of village water supply.

The autumn nights are already dark, but during full moon there's enough light for example to go fishing - with self-made fishing rod and hooks, that is.

Textilecraft in action. We have a new batch of harvested nettles retting in the water, and prepare to spin some yarn from earlier extracted nettle fibres.

Version 3.70 changelogs

First, here's changelog since the latest 3.70 beta version.
New content to be aware for those who have already been playing the beta versions.

3.70 (stable) changelog - new content since 3.70-beta 3

- added: whole lotta new portraits, and specific portait categories for old men and sages

A good bunch of new portraits have been added for kids, female and male characters. There are also two new portrait categories specifically for old men and sages. Portraits in these categories are exclusive for those type of NPCs and can't be associated with other NPCs nor chosen as a player character portrait. MIGRATION NOTICE: NPCs generated in the previous versions continue to appear with their previously generated portraits.

- added: bowstrings as a separate functional part of a bow

Bowstrings are now featured as a craftable item of their own. Bowstrings wear out in use and thus need to be replaced every now and then. Crafting any bow now requires also a bowstring item, so you need to have a bowstring ready in order to make a functional bow. * crafting a bowstring

Bowstrings can be crafted from [M]ake-menu under [W]eapons category. Bowstrings are made out of multiple strands of yarn twisted together, but also thin cordage can be used for a makeshift bowstring. Upon crafting a bowstring you can select the material, yarn or cord, to be used. It's faster to make a bowstring from a cord and the required length is also far lesser, but bowstrings made out of cords are also always of lesser quality. Your textilecraft skill determines the success of making a bowstring. Due to item usage complexity bowstring crafting is hard-coded and not to be found in editable diy_*.txt file.

* bowstring breakage and replacement

Good quality bowstring can last up to thousand of shots or so. The lower the quality the faster the bowstring is prone to break. When the bowstring breaks a message is displayed and the bow gets described as "bow with no string". Naturally you can't shoot with such a bow anymore until a new bowstring is added.
You can check out condition of a bowstring in strung bows with [i]nventory command. Upon selecting a bow to examine you will see how the bowstring looks like.
You can add a new bowstring to a bow with no string with [a]pply command. First apply the bowstring, and then select a bow to be strung with the string.

- added: [a]pply command can be used to remove hook from a fishing rod or to unstring a bow

Sometimes you want to remove the old fishhook or bowstring at will and it can be done with [a]pply command.
To remove a hook from a fishing rod [a]pply the fishing rod on dry land. The reason for doing it on dry land is that otherwise the fishing attempt will be initiated.
To remove a bowstring from a strung bow just [a]pply the bow anytime.
If you try to attach a fishhook or bowstring to fishing rod or bow that already carries those item parts you'll be notified of these new removal mechanics.

- added: spruce quick-bow - a simple craftable makeshift bow

Spruce quick-bow is the most simple and quick to make type of a bow. It's made out of a single branch that is cut from a standing spruce tree. It goes without saying that this type of bow is not a high performance weapon, but it is efficient enough for hunting squirrels and other small game.
Spruce quick-bow can be crafted from [M]ake menu "Weapons"-category. There's also SPRUCE QUICK-BOW game encyclopedia [F1] entry available for more information.

- removed: primitive bow and juniper bow - newly introduced spruce quick-bow replaces these.

- adjusted: villagers reclaiming heavy loads

Previously villagers would crowd endlessly around items they wanted to reclaim and restock if the load of whole stack was too heavy to pick up. Now they try to pick up such loads in smaller stacks, and if that should fail also they will eventually give up.

- added: craftable cords and ropes from yarn

You can now craft cords and ropes from yarn. These options can be fround from [M]ake menu under [T]ying equipment category.

- adjusted: cord and rope crafting requirements and applicable skill

Crafting any cord or rope now also requires a branch which is used as an aid for twisting the strands firmly together. The applicable skill for crafting yarn based cords and ropes is now textilecraft.

- changed: generic "cord" item name and quality

The generic craftable makeshift "cord" item which is made out of strips of clothing is now called "cloth cord" and its finished quality always remains on inferior side.

- updated: game encyclopedia [F1] entry for CORD and ROPE

- adjusted: "Set a net" now shows only tools in "Fishing" menu

- modding add: 'first word' value for [naming:] tag

Using 'first word' with [naming:] tag will get value of the first word of selected material/item name. For example, material requirement and naming such as:
{Cord} [remove] [name:%s product] [naming:first word]
would result in finished item called 'yarn product' if 'yarn cord' was selected as the material, or 'linen product' if 'linen cord' was selected. And so on.

- adjusted: fatigue accumulation when moving by watercraft

Type of the vessel and implement used to move it now matters to how fatiguing it is to move by watercraft. In general it is more strenuous to move by raft than by punt. The implement used to move the vessel also matters. Shoving the watercraft ahead with sesta takes more effort than paddling.
- adjusted: companions pay more attention to closing doors

Companions now always try to close the doors they pass. This is to avoid them letting domestic animals, or warmth, to escape from your settlements.
- fixed: possibility of NPC portrait being the same as player character's portrait - fixed: carried load unit (lb/kg) in statistics window not changing if system of measurement was changed during the gameplay
- fixed: sneaking while skiing on snow crust didn't reduce the speed - fixed: dried cuts as fishing baits got used up in one single fishing attempt
- fixed: [nominlen] crafting tag not calculating tying equipment stacks properly
- fixed: NPC's excess bartered good might be distributed also to the village animals
- fixed: auto-shortening of tying equipment in crafting recipes not always reducing the weight accordingly
- fixed: boy NPC weights generated wrong and too low
- fixed: plants not burning in fire

Version 3.70 major changelog - since the first beta release

- added: snow crust

Snow crust is a springtime phenomena where surface of the snowpack becomes so hard that it can completely support a walking or skiing person - and some animals as well. The crust results from partial melting of the snow surface by warm spring day sunlight followed by re-freezing when the temperature drops again, usually after the sunset.
The crust normally only lasts for part of the day, but being able to travel on snow without sinking in there at all is a great asset for a hunter.
Elks were traditionally hunted on skis during crust as it can't support the heavy animals and hunter gliding on skis eventually became faster than their fatiguing prey. This hunting method and many other wintertime scenarios now become possible with the additon of snow crust mechanics.

* If the snow crust can support somebody or not depends on how hard and thick the crust is, and how heavy the load of the person or animal is. Similarly to ice mechanics the snow crust also supports skiing person better than a walking person. The crust mechanics work similarly for player character, NPCs and animals.

* Information about the crust type, if there is any, is told when you look at snowy ground tiles. The crust information is added to the snow depth information so you get messages like "waist deep snow with hard crust", "knee deep snow with faint crust", and so on.

* Skiing on crust is faster and less fatiguing. There's also a new ski message notifying you about skiing on the crust. Similarly walking on crust is naturally faster than trudging in the deep snow. It's practically as easy as walking on any solid surface.

* There are new movement samples for walking or skiing on crust, so the sound of character's movement also works as an indicator of the phenomena.

- improved: mobility and fatigue penalties for moving in the snow

Previously there was one overall reduction to character's mobility when moving in the snow without skis, but now the actual snow depth affects to how much the mobility is actually reduced. The same goes for fatigue as it now accumulates slower or faster depending on the snow depth. Shortly, the deeper the snow the harder and slower it is to trudge through it without skis. - added: snow penalties for animals and NPCs
NPCs and animals now suffer from the snow penalties similarly to player character. All the snow penalty mechanics now work the same for player character, other human beings and animals.
The actual snow depth that starts to hinder the animals is naturally relative to their size. A human knee deep snow is a little extra strain for an adult elk, but for example a wild boar or dog would suffer from it more significantly. The new snow depth mechanics bring in many new factors to animal movement and hunting scenarios.
It should be noted that there also several animals that are adapted to moving in the snow without much difficulties at all. There are for example hare, lynx, glutton, weasel, ermine, squirrel and so on. For animals like these the snow penalties appear far lesser, and they have their species specific snow movement adjustments in action.

- added: more prone to stumble when wearing skis

Whenever stumbling is checked a character wearing skis is always less agile and more likely to stumble than without skis.

- added: village areas always have reduced snow depth

The village area is considered so stomped that the snow depth is always low. Otherwise NPCs and player characters might needlessly fatigue themselves merely by walking around the village.

- added: foreign traders can share the excess trading load

Previously a single foreign trader wouldn't accept more traded furs than he could carry. This made trading of heavy pelts often all too awkward. Now foreign traders can share the excess load so that if the NPC you are trading with can't carry it all the excess items are distributed to his fellows who can.

- changed: observing surroundings from a tree - no more see-though trees
You can't see through trees anymore when observing surroundings after climbing up a tree. The overall visibility is still better but foremostly because being higher allows you to see beyond elevations that would normally block your field of vision. But visual obstacles such as trees now do remain visual obstacles.

- added: the moon, and the moonlight

The weather engine now models the moon in detail, with its' changing phases and moonlight affecting to the nighttime visibility and brightness. There are eight different moon phases now graphically presented in the horizon window, and the map gets blue moonlight tint according to the amount of moonlight provided. Especially during the darkest seasons moonlight can be of a great help significally extending the available hours for working, hunting or travelling. The moonlit nights are now a really different experience, and remember that it doesn't even have to be a full-moon for the moonlight effects to be noticed.

- added: smoothly changing visibility based on time of day

The change in visibility, ie. how far the character can see, now happens on minute basis. This means the visibility decreases and increases with the sunsets and sunrises much more smoothly than previously, when it was calculated on hourly basis. The visibility is also now more realistically calculated from the angle of the sun relative to the horizon.
During the darkest seasons you will now experience the darkness falling faster, but also more smoothly, together with the quickly setting sun. The summer night expreriences don't change all that much compared to the previous version, but whenever the visibility changes even a little it now happens in smaller and smoother steps.

- changed: plant harvest time information messages

There are few changes in messages when looking at plants that aren't yet ready for harvesting. The used expression now speaks of "fully ripe" instead of "can be harvested", because its sometimes useful and possible to harvest plants even before they are matured.
In case of herbs that are gathered for their flowers the harvest time expression now refers to when the plant will be flowering, instead of when it's fully matured for harvesting.

- added: plant fibre processing with a new TEXTILECRAFT skill

You can now extract fibres from nettle, hemp and flax and process them into yarn. For this, a new TEXTILECRAFT skill has been added. Plant fibre processing involves several stages of work, which are explained in detail below. There's also game encyclopedia (F1) entry about TEXTILECRAFT containing the essential information. All the textilecraft options can be found in the general [M]ake menu, or by using the textilecraft skill. And this is how the plant fibre processing is done:

* RETTING

First, the fibres must be separated from the stalks of harvested plants. This process is called “retting”, and it is done by soaking the plants in the water for several days. Sufficient soaking time depends on the water temperature, varying from 5 to even 25 days. The warmer the water, the faster the retting process is. The retting doesn't occur at all in very cold water so it can't be done for example in the winter.

Nettle fibres are a speciality as they can be extracted directly from the fresh plants without retting and drying processes. Pros and cons of this are explained in EXTRACT FIBRE chapter.

* DRYING

When retting is complete, the plant stalks are dried outdoors in loose bundles. The stalks need to dry out fully so that they can be crushed in the following work phase of extracting the fibre. Drying takes about a week, and once dried they can be also stored for future and processed when there’s need and time for that.

* EXTRACT FIBRE

Lastly, the fibres can be now extracted from the stalks. This is done by breaking the retted stalks so that the woody core shatters and falls away leaving the loose fibres free. Traditionally this was done with a special device called ‘loukku’, but in the game we use more primitive method of beating the stalks for example with a club on a solid working surface. Extracting fibres this way is hard physical work and commonly carried out with several people working together. If you have companions around they will help you with the task.
After the breaking phase, obtained bundles of fibre are scraped free from remaining coarse parts and extraneous material. This is done in steps, first removing the biggest extraneous parts and gradually proceeding towards the finer ones. Traditionally special tools, combs and brushes were used to clean the bundles of fibre as effectively as possible. In more primitive fashion it can be also done by whisking, rubbing and whacking the bundles against a hard surface, or with tools at hand. In the game this is the method used, and the equipment available for breaking is applied here as well.
If need be, nettle fibres can be also extracted directly from the stalk by hand without the preceeding steps. To do it simply use "extract fibre" option directly to freshly harvested nettles. This method takes more time and dexterity, but can be a useful option when only a small amount of fibre is needed. The nettle stem is crushed by hand, and the fibres carefully stripped off. Character's expertise in textilecraft affects to required working time and amount of usable fibre extracted. So as your mastery in textilecraft increases you can expect to get higher fibre yield in shorter time. Extracted fibres are obtained in small bundles, eg. "bundle of hemp fibre". These items are categorized as PLANT type in character's inventory.

* SPIN YARN

Spinning fibres into yarn can be done either by hand, or with a spindle. Spinning by hand is naturally slower than using a spindle. Spindles are recognized also as ground items so you don't have to carry it with you. If you have companions around one of them can assist in spinning by holding the bundle of fibres for you. Obtained yarn can be then used in crafting of many different items.

- added: flax - a new cultivated plant

Flax is an old cultivated textile plant, but not as commonly grown as hemp. It doesn't survive in the very north and is grown only by certain cultures south of Kaumo. Kiesseläiset and Reemiläiset in the east, and Driikiläiset, Sartolaiset and Koivulaiset in the west do grow flax.
Flax flowering is featured in the game, although the flowers can't be picked. The seeds develop after the flowering, but flax can be also harvested earlier for fibre alone.

- game encyclopedia [F1]: updated entries about LINEN, FLAX, HEMP and NETTLE

- added: spindle - a new craftable item for spinning fibres into yarn.

- added: yarn as village product

Villagers can now produce and stock yarn made of either nettle or hemp. The type and availability of yarn depends on the culture and village population.

- changed: some craftable items now require yarn as the tying equipment type

Yarn is now required for example when making arrows, loop snare and fishing rod. There can be minor changes in the required lengths as well.

- added: leather cord, a new craftable item

Leather cord is made simply by cutting long, thin strands of leather. It's craftable from Tying equipment category in Make menu.

- added: "strong cordage" tying equipment requirement type

Strong cordage covers all the ropes and spruce withes. That's what you need to use when strong cordage is required in crafting and building.

- modding add: {Strong cordage} material tag

- changed: some craftable items now require strong cordage as the tying equipment type

Strong cordage is now required for example when making raft, big deadfall trap and bear trap.

- added: "thin cordage" tying equipment requirement type

Thin cordage covers cords and yarns. That's what you need to use when thin cordage is required in crafting and building.

- modding add: {Thin cordage} material tag

- added: making clothes requires thin cordage

Crafting of leather and fur clothes now require varying lengths of thin cordage for sewing the parts together. Yarns and cords can be used for that. This requirements covers most of the clothes but few pieces such as caps and cloaks can be crafted without any cordage.

- added: more use for cured animal skins

All the cured skins now work as kota covers, and cured furs work similarly to tanned furs as ground covers and blankets for more comfortable sleeping.

- added: straw - a new item part of certain plants

Straws are byproduct of threshing plants such as nettles and hemp. Straws don't have specific use of their own but do serve as material for fibre processing. Straw items were added for the sake of being able to thresh valuable plants for seeds and leaves first, and still have the straw remaining for fibre.

- modding add: a new flora header tag: [straw]

There is a new tag that can be added to plant header in flora_*.txt files. [straw] tag indicates that the plant leaves a straw after it is threshed. The tag is currently in use for hemp and nettle, for their fibre processing possibilities.

- modding add: a new flora property [FIBRE_YIELD:1,2,3]

There is a new property for plants in flora_*.txt files. [FIBRE_YIELD:value] property can have value of 1,2 or 3 and it defines how much fibre the plant yields when processed with textilecraft options. - modified: nettle plant properties and habitats

They sprout about a month earlier than previously, in seedtime month, and have new habitats; wetland, pond and cliff.

- added: textile plants can be harvested for fibre while they're still growing

Harvesting growing textile plants can be done at the age of 30-35% of their full growth time. This needs to be done with "Harvest" agriculture option, as using pick up command just collects the young leaves or so.

- added: post spruce, a simple wilderness condition shelter

Post spruce ("asentokuusi" in Finnish) is a temporary shelter made by felling a spruce tree to lean against another. Some low branches are cut to make space in the midst of the trees, and the cut twigs are laid on the ground as insulation. This simple shelter gives you protection from the elements and is commonly used for spending a night in the wilderness.
The option to set up a post spruce is found under "Building options", and requires the same tools as felling young trees in general. The twigs for the ground insulation are cut and laid automatically.

- added: sleeping on spruce twigs

Sleeping on spruce twigs now gives a little extra warmth and protection from the cold. Sleeping on furs is still the most comfortable way to spend a cold night, but spruce twigs come as a good alternative. About half a dozen spruce twigs will provide enough insulation from the cold ground.

- added: automated cutting of tying equipment to required lengths in crafting

Tying equipment is now automatically cut to required lengths in crafting. However, with this new condition in effect the selected equipment must meet the minimum required lengths - with a few exceptions which are dealt later.

For example:
If "5 feet cord" is required you can use any cord 5 feet or longer, but not shorter pieces. If the selected cord is longer than required it will be automatically cut to length and you'll find the remaining portion in your inventory.
When multiple pieces of certain length tying equipment is needed the requirement is now described for example as "5 feet cord * 2", meaning that you need two pieces of 5 feet cords. This is a change compared to previous versions where such requirement would have been descriped as the total calculated length eg. "10 feet of cord". That is the default way of handling tying equipment requirements now, but there are few exceptions to the rules described above. The exceptions are:
- using birch-bark strips in crafting
- tying equipment requirements in smoking and drying processess
- making a raft

In these cases the tying equipment requirement is descriped as total calculated length and can be composed of several shorter pieces - just like it used to be. There's also new crafting tag [nominlen] which can be used to ignore minimum length requirement where necessary.

- modding add: [nominlen] tag for length-based materials

This tag, which stands for "no minimum length", can be used to indicate that length-based material requirement can be composed of several shorter pieces.

For example: {Cord} =5= [nominlen] [remove]

This means that 5 feet of cord is required but you can come up with the total length using several shorter pieces. If [nominlen] tag wasn't used here the selected cord would need to be at least 5 feet long.

- added: little girls as new NPC type

MIGRATION NOTICE: Villages generated in the previous versions contain only NPC types of that particular version so you can't expect to find little girls from migrated villages.

- changed: "kid" and "child" NPC descpriptions changed to generic "boy" description

- adjusted: children NPC attributes and skills

Previously children NPCs didn't differ all that much from the adults, but now their physical and mental attributes have been checked and adjusted. In general children are now weaker and more vulnerable to physical harm. But even if they lack the strength and endurance of the adults the level of some attributes eg. dexterity and agility can surprise sometimes.
Children may sometimes choose to participate in fights if their village is threatened, but in general children are now more eager to flee upon serious danger. Boys are often slightly more eager to fight than girls who wisely rather run to alarm adults, and even the neighbouring villages if need be.

- added: withes are auto-selected when making fences

- added: roasting (turnips) in embers

Roasting in embers requires good amount of embers so it can't be expected to work in the remains of just any little fire. The fire should be burning for several hours before enough hot embers will remain for the method to work. For this reason roasting in embers is usually proceeded after substantial fire was lighted anyway out of necessity. It takes about an hour for turnips to cook in embers.
For the convenience of timing you can start roasting in embers already when the fire is clearly dying and about to burn out soon, given that enough embers has been produced already.

- modding add: new cookery method tag [ember-roast]

Using this tag the associated food item is prepared by the ember-roast method. Glowing embers automatically becomes a requirement when using the tag.
- added: chat option to ask location of the village water supply

"Ask for directions" chat section now has an option to ask location of the village water supply.

- added: configurable display of units in imperial or metric system with more precision

There's now configuration option to choose which system of measurement, imperial or metric, you wish to use for displaying units in the game. The default is to use imperial system, and it can be changed from in-game setup options menu.

- added: craftable fishhooks and fishing rod

You can now craft a fishing rod, and wooden and bone fishhooks. Fishing rod item description now also tells the type of the hook attached eg. "Fishing rod with wooden hook".

- added: fishhook material matters to its effectiveness

Iron hooks are the best kind, then come bone hooks, and wooden hooks are the least effective.

- added: usage of baits in rod fishing

When rod fishing you will be now asked what to use as a bait. Using baits is not necessary, but recommended. Catching a fish every now and then without a bait is still possible, but for reliable rod fishing and decent catches baits are now quite essential.
You can use pretty much every food item as a bait and portion of the selected item will be used during the fishing attempt. Pieces of raw meat and fish can be considered decent baits for predatory fish, but for example crumbs of bread may also work for some fish. You can also use a whole small fish, eg. roach or perch, in order to attract a bigger predatory fish. With this addition in effect the type of fish caught with rod fishing is now more dependant on the baits used. It's not likely that you'll catch a pike with an empty hook, but having a small roach as a bait might work. And that little roach might have been caught with quite moderate bait such as bread crumb, or even with some tasty vegetation.

- added: FISHING category to [M]ake menu

The category contains fishing related handcraft options, which are as mentioned above, crafting of fishing rod and different types of hooks.

- added: fishhooks snapping off from a worn out fishline

Fishhooks may occasionally snap off as the line wears out in use especially around the hook. This wear is relative to the number and size of fish having nibbled the line over time. So, with big catches you can also expect a faster wear. If the hook snaps off a message is displayed and the fishing rod gets described as "fishing rod with no hook" - but it can be also repaired with a spare hook.

- added: [a]pply fishhooks to repair a hookless fishing rod

You can repair a hookless fishing rod with a spare fishook with [a]pply command. First apply the fishhook, and then select a fishing rod to repair.

- added: map zoom level is saved with the character
- adjusted: skin sizes of seals
- changed: berry porridge recipe

Less berries, more water and flour, and slightly shorter cooking time.

- added: a dozen of new character and NPC portraits
- adjusted: saplings are now lesser obstacle for projectiles

You can still hit them occasionally, but it's far more easier to shoot/throw past them.

- improved: file write safety in case of sudden power loss or shutdown

- fixed: high CPU usage, especially on some Linux and OSX systems

- fixed: in villages, building a fire to location with still warm embers was mistakenly considered a breach

- fixed: animals freed from traps mistakenly considered trapped and perishing because of that

- fixed: birds mistakenly flying still

- fixed: character's mobility suffering from faulty snow penalty

During the usual winter month characters movement was reduced due to snow penalty even if there wasn't any snow on the ground. Moreover, this faulty snow penalty was in effect also indoors.

- fixed: multiple creature selection listing irrelevant NPCs when picking from or packing a creature

- fixed: birch saplings blocking the line of sight

- fixed: cutting branches and peeling bark from saplings

- fixed: when thrown object or projectile hits a saplings the resulting message didn't mention the tree being a sapling

- fixed: birch withe material requirement eg. in the making of vasta also accepted spruce withes

- fixed: shortening tying equipment not reducing their price value

- fixed: resting for a turn [.] at settlement tile activated zooming in

- fixed: small silver items not always degrading in sacrificing

- fixed: looking at animals with no encyclopedia entry shows the previous animal's info entry

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That's all folks. We wish you happy adventures with the new release!