0.189

Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

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Greetings from Elderwood!

Elderwood, or AZ2, is mostly presentable in 0.189. There’s still some placeholder assets and greybox blockouts, but the map looks about 90% complete now.

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Size of Elderwood

AZ2 compared to the default housing plot.

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Elderwood map

The zone has now undergone two different reworks since it was originally conceived. The current version is about 60% the size of the original idea, and some areas are missing.

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Fauna of Elderwood

~17 new critters, ~23 new fish (including sharks), and a new huntable creature.

Bugs
- Butterfly: Dayshadow Batterfly, Kitsuu Moth, Cottonhop Batterfly, Vampire Batterfly,
- Beetle: Blood beetle, Banshee beetle, Draugr beetle, Shadvaraak
- Moth: Hummingbird Moth, Whispering Widow, Witch’s Eye
- Piksii: Brightshroom Piksii, Flame Piksii, Zephyr Piksii,
- Grasshopper: Flamehorned Rockhopper, Floating Lantern Rockhopper, Grumpy Granite Rockhopper, Pumpkin Rockhopper,
Fish
- Grim Gouramis, Sabertoothed Anchvoy, Fluttering Flounder, Bitterling Nova, Mullet Minnow
- Elderwood Betta, Halfmoon Betta, Umbraan Betta
- Ancient Eel, Lightrail
- Majiri of War, Midnight Floatfish, Moon Floatfish, Piksii Floatfish, Toadstool Floatfish, Umbraan Floatfish
- Dappled Discus, Frillyfin, Ancient Koi
- Brightshroom Oranda, Inyrevn Mermaid…
- Sharks: Elder Shark, River Shark
Hunting:
- Fungopher

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Next in: Temple of the Cosmos

In 0.189, the temple was updated with a long corridor leading to another set of closed doors. This is what lies beyond.

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INTERMISSION

Hey, I heard you like butterflies? Here’s a map of all possible spawn locations of the elusive Rainbow-Tipped Butterfly.

Be warned though, that those spawners can instead spawn one of the following: Common Blue Butterfly, Kilima Night Moth, Lunar Fairy Moth, Bahari Glowbug. And that will happen most of the time. So you’ll still need a lot of luck.

But at least now it’s clear, once and for all, where the butterfiels dwell.

And now, back to regular programming.

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0.181

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Beach Walkers are called Ogopuu

That one Elderwoods specific hunting creature now has a confirmed name. They’re called Ogopuu and drop scales.

Ogopuu poo, I mean scales. Yes.

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Summer event: SCRAPPED

Gone, reduced to atoms.

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AZ2: what exactly is Ghost Village?

While Elderwoods is pretty much confirmed, this map file that aligns with the most recent look of AZ2 was also spotted. But - confusingly, it’s called “Ghost Village”.

Ghost village map

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New harvestable wood type and Koppa seeds

A new tree type exclusive to Elderwoods, and the associated materials.

Elderwood tree

Elderwood tree seed, Elderwood plank, and Elderwood wood (how much wood could a woodchuck chuck).

Elderwood seed Elderwood plank Elderwood wood ood od d

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Housing: Pool

This model uses placeholder textures for now and will most likely look better.

Housing: Pool

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Old Alpha maps

There’s still some remnants of how old Alpha maps used to look like in the game files. Take a look and see if you can spot the differences (click to enlarge).

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0.178

AZ2 is Elderwoods

AZ2 has changed again. It now includes enough trees to be called Elderwoods.

This also hints that the previous iteration of AZ2, that included a fortress and a broken aqueduct, must have been a bad merge. Either Ancient Forest was scrapped in favor of Elderwoods, or these are two separate maps.

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Beach walker coastline

This area includes a gazebo with a pier, and some static Beach Walkers. Possibly a setup for promotional renders?

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Mushroom caves

Mushroom caves are making a comeback in this verion of the game archive.

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Abandoned villages

There are two different village-like areas in the map, with suspended walkways and buildings. The second area appears unfinished. It is safe to assume this is where we meet Ulfe.

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General landscape

Map is mostly filled with dense forests with occasional clearings. Moreover, there are multiple distinct structures that will most likely serve a gameplay purpose.

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0.177.1

4th map? Ancient Forest?

This map was shipped in 0.177.x under AZ2, but it’s different from the current AZ2. It’s unknown if it was scrapped in favor of Elderwoods, or if it’s indeed the 4th map. The rocky area in the back seems to just be a chunk merge error, and belongs to the current AZ2.

The map is half empty and uses placeholder pillar structures. It most likely doesn’t represent the final look of the zone.

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Map size in perspective

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Landscape vs working draft

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New ore: Illuminium

Illuminium ingot Illuminium ore

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New fish, bugs and forage

Forage
- Elderflower
- Elderwood Lotus
- Elderwood Orchid
- Fern Fiddlehead
- Kopaa bush
- Waterflower
- FLOWTATO 😂
- Mushrooms
  - Floatfish mushroom
  - Baby clam, Elder clam shroom
  - Staircase mushroom
- Black pearl
- Beehive and Honey

Gatherables in ancient forest

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Earth temple concept

Compared to the released version, some side areas have become inaccessible, and the whole pipe maze section is missing. The final galdur-gardener area was also changed completely.