Status Update

Howdy hunters,

Welcome to another status update! I am taking over from Stefan this week to give you a slightly deeper insight into what has been happening behind the curtains in the EW headquarters, well, at least the Classic part of it. For all the exciting news and developer blogs on theHunter: Call of the Wild, make sure to join their official community hub.

What’s cooking

Both December and January have been extremely productive for the team. We released the beautiful wolves and crows onto Timbergold Trails, made a complete overhaul of our Black and Brown bears, gave your dogs and backpacks an upgrade in form of pouch vests, polished some animations, upgraded and added new membership bundles as well as released duck missions and competitions. With the exception of a couple of short server hiccups we have been keeping the game stable, and the amount of crashes has been at an all-time low. There are still bugs and minor crashes in the game, as there always will be, but we are committed to fixing as many things as possible as we continue working on new stuff.

Speaking about which, I wanted to give you a small insight into what has been keeping us busy in the last month. We’ve started this year off by brainstorming and putting together a roadmap of releases for the next half a year and, if we manage to pull off everything we have planned, we will be looking at a truly remarkable period for theHunter Classic. Fingers crossed. A lot of things are already work in progress, for example we’ve started working on a new interesting species as well as a new and even more interesting feature. In the meantime we have been poking at some existing things that we wanted to improve for quite some time, so we took a stab at Whitetail and Blacktail Deer animations as well as deleting images from the trophy gallery and more things that are a bit too early to reveal. Our main goal for the upcoming months is to try to find a balance between adding more depth to the game in the form of new features, as well as improving the general quality of the game by fixing bugs, while at the same time releasing content and running lots of events on a regular basis to keep the ship afloat and players engaged.

Free Extra Equipment

As I’ve mentioned, last week we updated our good old membership bundles and added a couple of new “special” ones. At the same time we also put together a small sweet pack with extra consumables that every hunter needs in the EHR. You can grab it for free on our Steam page here (you would need to connect your theHunter account to Steam to get the bundle, but you can disconnect it any time later on). Naturally, you can buy it only once and we would appreciate if you could leave a comment on the bundle store to let us know what you think about it.

Bits and bobs

In case you missed our new beautiful .308 Bolt Action Rifle “Carbon” that we released this week, make sure to check it out! We also have a special competition running right now to celebrate its release and hopefully encourage you to try the rifle.

We’ve received a great deal of fantastic submissions to the game design competition for Timbergold Trails animals, thank you for your creativity and engagement on this one! We’ll be going through the entries over the next week to pick the best and most fitting for theHunter. We’ll keep you posted about the results!

We haven’t forgotten about the Ask Us Anything (although it might feel like we have) that we did last year. The team has started going through the long list of questions and we are hoping to be able to release the responses soon.

That’s it from us for today, happy hunting!

Discussion

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Status Update

Hello Hunters,

Welcome to this week’s Status Update! Another exciting week is nearly over at Expansive Worlds, time really flies when we are busy and there are many great things to do. Oh, and talking about things that fly…

Duck Missions

We had announced it in one of the previous status updates and they’re finally here – the long awaited Duck Missions, designed by Tanngnjostr, the winner of the game design competition, are now live and playable. You can check them out in more detail under the ‘Missions’, make sure to give them a try.

We’re super excited to hear what you think about them, so let us know!

Brand new Membership Bundles

Our membership bundles Wayfarer, Pathfinder and Trailrunner have been community favourites since their release back in the days but as time went by and more and more things got added to theHunter, we felt that their contents became slightly outdated. So, we gave them a slight overhaul to give you even more value when buying those.

On top of that we also added totally new Special Bundles into the mix, containing a 3 month membership and a selection of items tailored for specific animals and their hunting gameplay. We are starting with Duck, Deer and Stealth Hunter, but if those are proven popular, we are happy to add more of those. Check out the details in the membership store and let us know what kind of membership bundles you would like to see added in the future.

To celebrate the new bundles there will be 20% sale on all memberships and membership bundles in our web shop until Sunday the 29th of January. You can activate the discount by redeeming this code MEMBERSHIPMADNESS in the membership store. So, come and grab them while they’re hot!

Game Trailer Competition Winners

After receiving so many great entries for our Trailer Competition it was a hard choice for us to select a winner, but we’ve made it.  theHunter team has voted and here are the results:

1st place goes to Beatsbynono

You win a copy of ‘theHunter: Call of the Wild’ (once it is released) as well as 5000 em$ or a “Trailrunner” Membership Bundle / 12 month-membership

2nd place goes to Moosehunter 330 Trailer

3000 em$ or a “Pathfinder” Membership bundle /6 month-membership are waiting for you!

3rd place goes to Regimentstyp2 Trailer

Your price will be 2000 em$ or a “Wayfarer” Membership bundle / 3 month-membership

I will be contacting the three of you individually via PM on the forum so you can claim your prizes.

Congratulations to all the winners, we hope you enjoyed this competition as much as we did here at Expansive Worlds. It was a pleasure for us to see the fantastic dedication and work everyone put into the creation of their trailers.

Farewell, Emil!

Today is also a sad day for us at theHunter and EW, because one of our own is moving on to new adventures. Many of you know our quirky Backend Developer Emil from the forum or in-game, since he joined theHunter in February 2013 he has brought significant positive change to the way we play the game today. The implementation of Multiplayer, release of theHunter on Steam, introduction of a new payment system and moving servers to a cloud based solution are only some of Emil’s many accomplishments. He will be founding his own business and we have no doubt that he will be successful in achieving his goals! The whole team here at EW says ‘Thank you and farewell,Emil!’

New streaming series ‘The Hunting Lodge’

For the next 3 weeks Johanna and I will be pausing theHunter Classic Lock&Learn to introduce our new streaming series The Hunting Lodge. It will be focused on theHunter: Call of the Wild and, joined by Developers from that team, we will be playing a pre-release version of the game. The first episode goes live today at 16:00 CET and we will be hunting with Robert, one of theHunter: Call of the Wild Animators. Make sure to tune in on www.twitch.tv/expansiveworlds!

Happy hunting!

Join the Discussion on the official forum here

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Status Update

Hello Hunters,

Welcome to this week’s Status Update, we have a lot to talk about, so let’s jump right into it 🙂

Dog Backpacks

Available in Happy Camper and Blazing orange variations, the Dog backpack allows you to bring a little more equipment with you out in the field by letting your dog carry some of the smaller items (up to 1.5 kg weight). The total capacity of the dog backpack is 5 kg. Try letting your pooch carry their own treats – they love it!

In addition to that we have also released fantastic dog bundles, in case you want to buy a full set of equipment for your furry friend. They come in two variations, one Scent Hound and one Retriever bundle.  

Crows

Our team have created beautiful Crows who are now circling above carcasses on Timbergold Trails to make it easier for hunters to find those.Read about this and other changes and fixes in the latest Game Update  In case you missed it yesterday.

Trailer Competition winners

For the past 2 weeks we ran a theHunter Classic game Trailer competition. A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has submitted a trailer and put hours of work into the creation, the team enjoyed them very much. We are still discussing and picking winners internally, hence the announcement of the results will be postponed for a few days. We want to make sure everyone in the team gets the chance to hand in their votes and the right person wins.

Design a mission or competition pack for theHunter

It’s time to do this again! You’re interested in Game Design and want to leave your personal mark in theHunter? Here’s your chance: Design a pack of missions and / or competitions for theHunter to win great prizes and get them featured in our regular schedule. You can find all the details on the official forum in this thread.

New Team Members

We’re very happy to welcome two new additions to theHunter team – Johan, our new 3D art intern, and Adam, our new customer support manager!

Hi there!

My name is Johan Pauli. I’m the new 3d artist Intern here at Expansive Worlds and I am super thrilled to get the opportunity to work together with this awesome team on theHunter.

I was born in Stockholm and I currently live in the outskirts of the city together with my wife and two kids. I’ve always loved being creative, but up until recently never been really sure what I wanted to focus on. I’ve studied both music and arts prior to my current education, which is Game Development at Stockholms University. When I started there I finally knew that working with games was the thing for me. Apart from games, my interests are cooking (and eating) food, travel and binge watching  series.

I’m really looking forward to get to know this dedicated community and to create content that you all like and enjoy!

Stay classy and happy hunting!

/Johan

Alright all.

My name is Adam Potts.  I joined the team this week as a Customer Support Manager.

I’m from the North of England and I’ve recently completed a sixteen-year contract with the Royal Air Force, where I was an Operations Manager in theaters around the world.

I’ve been involved with the gaming industry since I started playing the CounterStrike Beta to a high level in 1997.  I moderated forums, managed clan servers and wrote news and articles for the online gaming communities Wireplay, Barrysworld and MPZ in the UK before I joined the military.  More recently I have been a games reviewer and editor, event report editor and cosplay photographer.  In 2013 I ran a series of twelve fighting video game events for all the top fighter development companies raising money for the charity SpecialEffect, which assists disabled gamers with playing games.

The games I’ve most recently played are the Banner Saga, Farcry Primal, Batman (The Telltale series), Fire Emblem Awakening and now theHunter.

In my free time I’m a combatives and silat instructor (and practitioner because you are always a student) and I’ve recently taken up tai chi.  I’ve a huge interest in the outdoors and survivalist theories about preparing for worst case scenarios.

I look forward to assisting in any way I can, and will no doubt see you all in the forums or in game.

Stay safe.

Live Stream #Lockandlearn

Join us for our weekly Live Stream at 4PM CET on the Expansive Worlds Twitch channel. Johanna and I will be joined by the game’s Producer Alena, who most of you will probably know very well from being the former Community Manager of theHunter.

You can find the discussion thread for this week’s Status Update here

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Game Update

Features:

  • New feature – Dog backpack. Available in Happy Camper and Blazing orange variations. The Dog backpack allows you to bring a little more equipment with you out in the field by letting your dog carry some of the smaller items (up to 1.5 kg weight). The total capacity of the dog backpack is 5 kg. Try letting your pooch carrying his or her own treats – they love it!
  • We’ve put some great bundles with dogs and new vests in the store, so make sure to check them out! Bundle 1 | Bundle 2
  • New feature – Crows are now circling above carcasses on Timbergold Trails, making it easier for you to find those.

Changes:

  • The .243 Bolt-Action Rifle Wood now has a new sound and improved animations
  • Binocular animations improvements
  • Huntermate animations improvements

Bug Fixes:

  • Shooting ranges on Timbergold Trails are open now.
  • Increased the volume on the hog caller
  • Dog stroll around crash fix
  • Wolf searching for carcass (fixed a timer)
  • Wolf crash fix
  • Several Launcher fixes
  • Fixed an issue with bisons becoming unresponsive and passive after an attack.

Discussion

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Status Update

Hello Hunters,

This week we are starting duck madness, so get your dogs ready and make sure you have all the necessary equipment ready!

A first shoutout goes to the winners of the ‘design a mission’ competition from earlier this year, Tanngnjostr for the Duck missions and mdfortney for the Duck competitions. Well done! The first of the brand new pack of Duck competitions, designed by mdfortney and waiora (we had to replace one of the competitions in the winner pack with the runner-up by waiora due to game design reasons) will go live today. Together with that we will have some fantastic equipment bundles in our store to help you gear up for all the Rougarou Bayou frenzy.

We had to change the winning design of duck competitions quite a bit to make it work for our competition editor, but what we’ve got in the end is something quite different from the rest of our regular competitions, pretty challenging but hopefully nonetheless enjoyable!

The duck missions by Tanngnjostr are currently being tested and we look forward to releasing them for you soon™. All four duck species will be on free species rotation until the next Thursday.

‘Ridealong’ in Rock Paper Shotgun

Speaking about duck hunting; Some of you may have already seen it back in December but just in case you missed it here is an entertaining article from Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Our well known community member Fletchette aka Excalibure73 aka John took Brendan from the magazine for a ridealong into the swamps of Rougarou Bayou to hunt some ducks, taught him some ropes of theHunter and the result is a truly enjoyable read.

 Trailer Competition

Last week we launched our Trailer Competition which will run until January 18th. You can find out more about the details and great prizes in this thread in the official forum. The prizes this time are really neat – well worth a try!

Community Spotlight

InstinciveArcher aka Trenton is one of our well-known community members and he’s also an avid bow builder and archer in real life. I interviewed him this week and we spoke about his passion for the sport, the craft and hunting in general. In part 2 of the Community Spotlight Trenton provided us with a full tutorial on Bow building. Make sure to check it out!

Live Stream | #LockandLearn

Last but not least don’t forget about our weekly stream. Today Johanna and I are joined by community member Fletchette, to go… of course duck hunting to kick off our duck hunting fest together with you. 🙂 Join us at 4PM CET on www.twitch.tv/expansiveworlds

That’s all, folks!

Cheers,

Stefan

Here you can find the link to the official Forum thread and discussion

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Community Spotlight: Bow building tutorial with InstinctiveArcher

Hello Hunters,

Welcome to the second part of the Community Spotlight with Trenton aka InstinctiveArcher, who will show us today how to build a bow from scratch. In case you have missed the first part you can find it here 

And now without further due, I‘m handing over to Trenton to show us how it’s done!  

For this bow building tutorial, I’ll will be building a laminated fiberglass recurve bow. I’ll try and describe the process in detail, and share pictures along the way to help describe each step. Obviously, not every little thing will be included, but I will try and cover all of the main points.

Enjoy!

Step 1:

The first step in building a laminated bow is making the handle, known as the riser. It is important to make the riser square and smooth, so that the laminations will attach firmly when glued and not have gaps. For this bow, I made my riser out of brazilian teak, maple, and mahogany. This wood combo looks really pretty together, and since teak is a heavier wood, it will absorb some of the handshock from the bow that would otherwise make it a bit uncomfortable to shoot.

Step 2:

The second step is gluing the entire bow up and putting it into the form. My laminations consist of two strips of fiberglass and two wood veneers made from bocote. One pair of laminations are the parallels, which maintain the same thickness throughout their entire length. The other pair of laminations are called tapers, since they taper by 1/1000 inch of thickness per inch of length. Before gluing everything up, I cover the bottom of the form in clear kitchen wrap so that the bow will not stick to the form. I also cover the bow with another layer of kitchen wrap after I glue it up so that the bow doesn’t stick to the pressure hose and upper half of the form. The epoxy that I use is a two part epoxy made specifically for bow building called Smooth-On. I epoxy all surfaces then stick them into my form. I run a pressure hose between the laminations and the top half of the form. Then, after I clamp down the top half of the form, I inflate the pressure hose to 60 psi. This squeezes everything tightly together so that their are no air pockets or dry spots.

Step 3:

Once the bow comes out of the form, it is covered in hardened globs of epoxy and kitchen wrap. I break of some of the major globs with a hammer and chisel, but it is really important to be careful around the bow since you can do a lot of damage with the chisel. I then take the bow to the belt sander and finish cleaning it up. It is really important to keep all the edges parallel when doing this, and if it doesn’t all come off, that’s fine. Lots of the extra epoxy will be cut off anyways.

Step 4

After I get the bow cleaned up, I use a template to trace the limb tapers onto the limbs. I cover the fiberglass with tape so that I can draw on them easily. I then take the bow to the bandsaw and cut the the tapers out, being careful to leave plenty of extra material in case of a mistake. When cutting fiberglass on a bandsaw, you are going to go through a lot of blades. After I finish on the bandsaw, I take the bow to the belt sander and continue to sand the limbs down to the lines.

Step 5:

After I get this all done, I glue on what are called the riser overlays. This just allows me to shape the riser a bit better. I then take a round rasp and file in the string nocks. This allows me to put a string on the bow and see how it bends. This is called tillering, and is perhaps the most important step in building bows. It is very important to make sure that the limbs are bending evenly, otherwise the bow may break if one limb is stressed more than the other. I can adjust the tiller by sanding some material off of the stiffer limb. I don’t take of to much at a time, because sometimes all it takes is a little bit of sanding to bring the limbs into proper tiller. Tillering is a bit more difficult on a recurve than on a longbow, but after a little practice, it becomes fairly easy. I generally leave one limb just a little bit stiffer than the other and designate this as my lower limb.

Step 6:

After tillering, I glue on a piece of phenolic to both limb tips. This reinforces the bow’s tips every time that the bow is shot. It is especially important to do so if you plan on using a fast flight string, since it has very little stretch and is less forgiving when shot. Since so much force is exerted every time that the bow is shot, the tips would eventually break if using a fast flight string. I generally don’t use them, since at most I’ve only noticed that I pick up 5-6 fps. After gluing the tips on, I got to work with a rasp and sandpaper in order to shape them.

Step 7:

After I get the tips finished, I take the bow to the band saw and rough out the riser shape, cutting out the sight window and roughly shaping how I want the riser to look. After that it is all sandpaper, rasps, and elbow grease. This part of building a bow takes a while because I want the riser to fit my hand well. Every so often, I string the bow, pull it, mark with a pencil all the places on the riser that don’t feel right in my hand, then go after those spots until I have them shaped how I want them. A bow with an uncomfortable riser is just no fun to shoot.

Step 8:

The end is finally in sight. Everything is how I want it, the bow is tillered, limb twist removed, and the riser shaped. Now all there is to do is add a finish. It is important to use a finish that is flexible. If you have a finish that won’t bend, such as lacquer, it will chip off every time that bow is drawn and limbs bend. Some people put a stain on their risers, but I prefer a more natural look. I use polyurethane because it is waterproof and protects the bow from dings and scratches when out in the field. Also, if need be, you can easily sand it off, make some adjustment to your bow, then spray it back on. I generally do 4 coats of finish on the riser, and 2 coats on the limbs. I sand with 600 grit sandpaper in between each coat.

Step 9:

Now we have a finished bow. It pulls 75 pounds at a 28 inch draw. With my draw length being around 29 inches, the bow is pulling roughly 78 pounds. What started out as a pile of crude materials has transformed into a beautiful and lethal hunting weapon. I’ve tried to explain the process as best that I could, although I am by no means an expert. It’s really not that difficult, and I highly recommend that everyone give it a try if they get the chance. I’ve heard too many people say “Wow, I’ve always wanted to do that someday.” Don’t wait for someday, just do it.

Trenton is currently working on his next project, a Deflex/Reflex Longbow which is going to be pretty exciting.

Thank you very much Trenton for sharing your fantastic craftsmanship and skill with us in this interesting tutorial. If you want to discuss the tutorial or leave some nice words for Trenton you’re welcome to do so in this thread, in the official theHunter Forums.

Cheers,

Stefan

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Community Spotlight: Archery & how to build a bow with InstinctiveArcher

Hello Hunters,

Welcome to the new blog series, Community Spotlight for theHunter. For today’s episode I talked to Trenton aka InstinctiveArcher, a member of theHunter community, about his passion for archery and bow building. If you have missed it, we have a great looking Heavy recurve bow in theHunter Classic inspired by one of the bows Trenton built in real life. In the 2nd part of the series, on Wednesday, we will then also learn more about the building process of that very bow in a detailed tutorial. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did 🙂

What is your name and where do you come from?

My name is Trenton, and I’m from beautiful Northern Michigan.

How long have you been playing theHunter for?

I have been playing theHunter for about 2 years now, maybe a little bit less. I started out as a guest player for about 6 months, and then finally was able to buy a membership, which made the game experience even better.

 

What was the moment that made you become interested in archery?

I guess what really got me interested in archery and bowhunting was watching my dad shoot his bow. It was a compound bow, which he worked on and sighted in himself. I remember sitting in the garage in the evenings, being amazed at the way that he could work on that bow as if it was second nature. When I was 6, I got my first bow, a red fiberglass compound. I shot that bow a ton. It got to the point where there were more holes on my target than there was foam. As I got older, my dad would buy me a new bow periodically, until eventually I worked up into a 60 pound Diamond Liberty.

I hunted with that bow for two years before really getting serious about the traditional side of archery. I had always taken sticks and tied string on them just to see if I could make my own bow, and that eventually led to me wanting a read traditional bow. I read every article, webpage, and book that I could on traditional archery. Having no experience with trad. archery, my dad wasn’t able to help much. I eventually found a great deal on a used recurve bow, and after an extremely long week, I came home to a long box on the front porch. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve put over 10,000 arrows through that bow. I have since then purchased four other traditional bows. However, my real passion is building my own. That first recurve really opened my eyes to how much fun traditional archery is, and my addiction has only grown, as well as my bow collection, and I don’t see either stopping anytime soon.

Do you hunt with bows in real life and if yes, which prey do you usually go for?

Yes, I absolutely love to bowhunt. If gun season never happened, and it was just one long bow season, I would be fine with that. My real passion is bowhunting whitetail deer. They are extremely smart, and getting within bow range is a real challenge. I’ll never forget the rush of adrenaline and emotions the first time that I killed a deer with a traditional bow. I sat in my stand shaking, crying, and laughing all at the same time. Besides deer, I also hunt turkeys, and have hunted black bear a few times. My dream hunt would be an Alaskan moose with a longbow, but I don’t know if that will ever happen. I’ve also done a bit of small game hunting, mostly squirrels and rabbits. However, the whitetails are my real passion.

How and where does one learn to craft a bow? Did you teach yourself to do it?

There are countless resources out there for someone who wants to build their first bow. The Internet has provided some incredible opportunities to read articles, as well as contact other bowyers and pick their brains. You’ll find that almost all are more than happy to help you out. Obviously, learning to build bows takes practice. In order to learn to make bows, you are going to learn how to break them. That’s just part of it. I remember when one of my first bows blew apart in my hands. I just stared at the pieces in shock for a minute, realized what I did wrong, tossed the pieces onto a pile of firewood and started another one. You definitely can’t let a failure deter you, because you are almost guaranteed to break a bow at some point. I am semi-self taught, but I have asked many people for advice in learning to make bows, which has saved me a lot of headaches and a bit of money as well. I like to do things myself, and figure out how to do things on my own, but I’m not above asking for help if I need it.

InstinctiveArcher with one of his trophies

What are the top 3 things you have to take care of when crafting a bow?

This question is tough, because there are different thing to look for when crafting different types of bows. One thing that you need to pay attention to no matter what kind of bow you are making is detail. Bow making can be a game of centimeters. One small miscalculation could be the difference between a sweet shooting bow and a handful of splinters. On a selfbow made from a single piece of wood, attention to detail is incredibly important. One must pay special attention to an all wooden bow to make sure that there are no cracks, also called chrysaling, which shows that bow is overstressed in that area and could break if not fixed. On a fiberglass bow, it is important to continually check the thickness of the limbs with a pair of calipers.

The second most important thing when building a bow is tillering. Tillering is the process of removing material from the limbs in order to make sure that they are both bending evenly. If a bow is not properly tillered, one limb will be overstressed in comparison with the other, and this may cause the bow to break. Also, on an improperly tillered bow, the limbs will spring forward at different times, rather than in unison, which will cause lots of hand shock and erratic arrow flight. I use a tillering stick to tiller my bows, and it works well. I take the stick, which is about 18 inches long and has a groove cut in the top, and stand it on the belly of the bow riser (the part facing the shooter). I then pull the string on the bow up and slide it into the groove. This allows me to view the bow as it would look when drawn back and see any parts of the limb that aren’t bending evenly.

The third most important thing that I pay attention to only applies to laminated fiberglass bow. It is essential to have a good glue line. This means that all laminations are firmly epoxied together and have no gaps anywhere. If there are gaps in your glue line in the bow limb, this will be a big issues. The only way to fix it would be to sand until it is gone, but depending on how deep the gap is, this may not be possible. If the gap runs completely across the limb, then there is no sense in risking using that bow, and it is best to start a new one.

Where do you get the materials for crafting – Can I just walk into a DIY store and buy them?

I buy my bow materials from a company called Bingham Projects. They are a fantastic company which offers any materials that you need, as well as complete start up kits for those who wish to learn to build bows. These kits include blueprints for the bow form, as well as all other materials that are needed to make your first bow. I don’t know of any DIY stores that sell bow making material, and I would recommend using a supplier such as Bingham’s when ordering your supplies. Since bow many materials for making bows are specifically made for bows, I think that it is important to order from someone who specializes in that sort of thing. One of my friends built a bow one time with store bought epoxy, rather than using the recommend Smooth-On for bow building, and his bow ended up delaminating.

If one wants to make a selfbow, than you will need an actual log, or half log, from which you will split out sections of wood to make a bow out of (known as a stave). Depending on what kind of wood you have around you, you can go out and cut your own (Also depending on what kind of regulations apply to cutting timber in your area). The best woods for bows would be yew, osage, hickory, ash, or locust. When cutting a log, I usually look for one about 6 inches in diameter and about 7 feet long. It’s important to cut green wood and not dead. The hardest part about gathering materials this way is that you need to let the wood dry and season, which can take up to five years. Some of the best osage bow ever made have been from osage fence posts that have been in the ground for 40-50 years!

InstinctiveArcher in Val-des-Bois

How much time do you spend on average crafting a bow from scratch until it is ready to be used?

Well, that all depends on how motivated I feel, how smoothly the build goes, as well as what kind of bow I’m making. Most people who have much more time than I do can generally get a laminated bow done in about a week or two. As those who followed the thread on the forum last year know, that particular bow took me about 6 months due to some setbacks and limited time to work on it. Someone who has much more experience than I do can make a working selfbow in as little as one day. Mine took about 3 weeks. It’s definitely one of those things that the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Do you accept orders or is this a purely recreational hobby for you?

This is only a hobby. I’ve had people ask me if I take orders, and I always tell them that I simply don’t have time. Being a senior in high school, I don’t have a ton of extra time, and I would be worried about not being able to complete a bow for someone within a reasonable amount of time. Besides, the better I get, the better the bows are looking and I don’t want to part with them!

If you could change one thing in theHunter, what would it be?

That’s a tough one. My biggest wish for theHunter would be improved AI. As of right now, animals always come to calls, and can be approached fairly easily. I would really like to see animals be a bit more wary, and maybe even circle to get downwind when coming into a call. Continuing with the AI, I would love some animal interactions. With the introduction of wolves, and with them chasing other animals, I feel that this is a huge step in the next direction. Now to just expand that to other species, such as deer fighting.

Lots of people ask me why I shoot traditional bows as opposed to a faster compound or crossbow. The simple answer is that it is more enjoyable. To be honest, I got bored shooting a compound. I could drill a bullseye at 40 yards every shot, but it just wasn’t fun. I would go out, shoot 5 or 10 arrows, then quit because I was bored. Ever since I switched to a trad bow, I have been outside shooting hundreds of arrows almost every single day (except during deer season when I’m out hunting). I never get tired of it. Something about simply focusing on a spot, subconsciously drawing and releasing the bow, and watching the arrow arc through the air and bury in the spot that you’re focusing on is almost magical. It’s relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. I can’t explain it any better than that.

I am also asked quite frequently why I would hunt with a bow that limits my chances at game animals. The truth is, I don’t. I’m convinced that once someone has learned to shoot a traditional bow well, they are much more effective in the field than they would be with a compound. Several of the animals that I have taken, I guarantee I would not have gotten them with a compound bow. A traditional bow has no sights, thus no need to worry about the exact distance of an animal. As long as it is within your personal boundaries in which you can accurately shoot, don’t even think about distance. When shooting instinctively, your mind automatically tells your hand how much it needs to elevate the bow in order to hit the spot where you’re looking. It also allows you to shoot quickly. I can get an accurate arrow off in less than 1 second, which is extremely beneficial for when you need to make a quick shot at an animal.

This snap shooting style is smooth and fluid, as well as accurate and deadly. It also aids in shooting at moving targets. Once, when out rabbit hunting with a buddy, his beagle ran a rabbit past me about 12 yards away. I didn’t really think about it, I don’t even remember drawing the bow. All I remember is suddenly my arrow was in the rabbit and it was flopping on the ground. That shot simply wouldn’t have happened with a compound. The final reason is that I just have more fun in the woods with a traditional bow. It just feels right. When I’m carrying a trad bow afield, it doesn’t feel like a piece of equipment, but more like an extension of myself. It’s a really special feeling.


Thanks a lot, Trenton, that was a very insightful and interesting read. Some of you may ask: ‘But…how do I build a bow now?’ Don’t worry, we’ll get right into that in part 2 of the community Spotlight on Wednesday, with a detailed tutorial on how to build a bow from scratch.

Here you can find the Blog’s discussions thread on the official theHunter forums. 

 

 

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Status Update

Hello Hunters,

We hope you all had a fantastic holiday season with your families and loved ones and a good new year 2017. Our team is (almost) back from vacations as well and we are gearing up for yet another brilliant year at theHunter that we hope to share with all of you. We’ve already started working on some exciting stuff, including  a couple of really cool and highly requested features. Stay tuned for more news and here’s to the amazing year 2017!

Rocky Mountain Elk Scent Spray

You’ve been asking for it since the release of Timbergold Trails – and it’s finally here. Doc Outfitters presents a secret blend of natural ingredients that are guaranteed to lure those majestic Rocky Mountain Elks. Comes in a practical spray can. Guaranteed to attract both genders. (Grab it from the store and spray away from face)

 

theHunter Classic Trailer competition

Who didn’t dream of being famous at some point? Here’s your chance! Today we’re announcing the comeback of our popular video trailer competition!

We ran our first video trailer competition almost three years ago and it was a huge success. The engagement and creativity you showed was amazing and you’ve made some real masterpieces. The game has changed dramatically since then, and we are eager to see what you’ll come up with now! We’ve prepared some sweet prizes for you, the main one being a free copy of theHunter: Call of the Wild – oh yes! Now go put your creative caps on, make sure to read the rules carefully in this forum thread and happy filming!

For inspiration, here is one of the winners of the previous competition, created by community member Aruvyel<:


We are very much looking forward to seeing your Trailers and inspirational ideas that make your own vision of theHunter come alive!

Cheers,
Stefan

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Status Update 202

Hello Hunters,

This will be my very first Status Update for theHunter Classic, so we have a little premiere to celebrate today *drumroll*   

First of all I want to introduce you to our newest team member, Luna. She has joined the team as a back-end developer last week and will take over from Emil, who will be moving on to new adventures shortly. Here are a few words from Luna:


“Hello everyone!

I’m Luna Duclos, I joined the team last Wednesday and will be working on the back-end code for theHunter Classic. My background is in python, C#, Go and C++, mostly on games, though also on some less interesting projects before I’ve gotten in the games industry.

I’ve been mostly playing MMORPG (Currently FFXIV) and 4X (Currently Stellaris) games, so theHunter is quite new to me. I’ve gotten through the tutorials so far and am looking forward to diving into it more and meeting people in the community. I’ve been lurking the forum the past few days and people seem really nice and welcoming.

In my free time I play a lot of games, travel around Europe and attend occasional game and programming related fairs and conferences. Occasional skiing has been known to happen as well (though I’m quite rusty by now, it’s been a while).

I intend to focus primarily on improving the back-end code and develop some new cool features as things go forward, and hopefully not accidentally kill the live servers …” 🙂

luna


Of course, there should be no Christmas without presents and this one is from us to you to say “thank you” for yet another brilliant year. Our first ever and hence not-that-nice-looking weapon, the  Old .243 Bolt-Action Rifle has gotten a makeover. We have re-done the model and animation of the weapon. Skills and achievements earned for this weapon are unaffected by the changes and stay.  

SplashScreen_weapon_newfree


We have also added our fantastic Cable backed bow to all active bow competitions which should spice things up a good bit and give you ever more freedom of (bow) choice”.  

cable_back_bow_01


 

Right in time for the upcoming Turkey mission in the Holiday Event the Turkey equipment bundle is making a comeback to the store . It was gone for a while but we´ve decided to re-add it based on feedback of the community. – make a good use of it!


LIVE STREAM TODAY

22nddec

At 4PM CET Johanna and I will go live again for some Elk Hunting and also have a some give-aways which we will hand out in a Holiday raffle. You can watch us on Twitch.


Holiday season and the new year are coming closer with big steps. This means that for the next week there will be a bit less “noise” from us since it is also vacation time in Sweden. However, we´ll still make sure that the weekly Status Update comes out, however this time on a Friday.

The theHunter Classic Team wishes you and your loved ones happy holidays! 😀

Happy hunting!

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Game Update

Changes:

SplashScreen_weapon_newfree

Bug Fixes:

  • Fix for White-tailed ptarmigans hiding

In progress:

  • Shooting ranges preparing to open (some changes were made but they are still not working properly)

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