a gotdamn corn chip

We interrupt the travelogue for breaking Wolvden drama:

It has always been the case that pack members are capped on daily stat gain (+2 originally, later boosted to +4) while leads are uncapped, meaning that lead is the prime stat grinding position. Without guarana, Fortinbras reached 2500, as did his son Reinhardt. With guarana, Stahlhast is 2600 stats at age five (from a humble start of around 350), while RavenWalker reached 4000 as a NBW. Even though I’m not a guarana user, my pack has benefited immensely from its usage via studding (Stahlhast/Addy, Elismir) and occasionally buying pups (my Rav kids).

A while back, a bug was discovered: if a lead wolf gains +4 from pup training, he can’t gain additional stats from battling that day. Spontaneite recommended not reporting it because of what we thought was the worst-case scenario, namely, that they would “fix” the bug by removing leads’ ability to gain bonus stats from pup training. More recently, Zea/Web independently rediscovered the bug and reported it. Deader, the dev in charge of battle-related matters, replied:

“This isn't a bug and not something we'd be refunding. Wolves are not supposed to get more than 2-4 stats per day depending on activity and luck. This includes lead wolves.

The actual bug is that stat increases from battling don't save the daily stat counter, thus allowing players to get more stats per day than originally intended. That bug has been there since the beginning and is basically "too late to fix". This would have likely upset people for whom stats are a major goal, and create a large gap between new wolves and those that are currently at very high stats.

Since the mechanics should be consistent, we're considering a few options, such as eventually fixing the daily counter on stats from battling but setting the daily cap high, not at the current +3/+4 and/or introducing other changes such as to stat passing.”

Pandemonium in the house. First of all, lead stats are a bug?? Lead stat grinding was unintended behavior?? (What were they expecting stat-oriented players to do if not grind lead wolves?) Second, they’re considering removing it by capping lead stats???

Mav had words. “I will pull a full blown Karen again if they ‘fix’ this. We asked for a stat fix the other way, dipshits.”

Nyx said: “Again I bring up the luna rate bug. They have a vision and they don’t give a shit if players like it.”

“Shit, man,” said Mav, “I have Lorwolf now. I need Wolvden like I need a third titty. They better learn quickly that they, the ones who barely touch the thing (like seriously they can’t even be fucked to bug test, much less play the game fully) need to listen to their community, especially the whales. They seriously have the business sense of a gotdamn corn chip.” (Immense amounts of money went to fuel Rav’s run. Given the rumors of WD’s razor-thin profit margins, they really can’t afford to say no to money.)

A new realization rolling around in my head: This is the first time I don’t hate the idea of leaving Wolvden. For the past year everyone has been burned out, rarerolling, taking hiatuses, and I’ve just been trucking happily along. More young hunters to train. More leads to overtake on the leaderboard. I’ve been enjoying myself. But now, I’m thinking: Suppose lead stats got capped and I never rolled again. All of a sudden it doesn’t sound that bad.

Which wolves would I miss as individuals? The list is surprisingly small. I’d miss seeing Armitage, my heir, rise on the leaderboard, but not if his stats are capped. I’d miss my next stud, Oreo Bandit, a g3 cynthia chaser triple merle; in terms of pup aesthetics I think he’ll be my best stud since Renjiro. And I’d miss Byzantium, my recently born stalker for The Reckoning, because I want to get a moss puppy on the leaderboard. That’s it. I like all my hunters, but it’s a while since I’ve gotten attached to them as individuals. I don’t write lore or draw art for them any more. I often forget which hunter is on which team.