Hello Hunters,
Please see our changes in today’s Game Update below:
Additions:
Changes:
Bug fixes:
Hello Hunters,
Please see the changes for today’s Game Update below:
Features:
Changes:
Bug fixes:
Hello Hunters!
It’s the end of the week, and therefore time for another Status Update! The office is very calm right now as everybody is back, rested after the holidays, and hard at work creating new content and game improvements. On Wednesday we added some new backpacks for your hunting dogs and the team is getting up to speed on lots of other goodies to make 2018 a year to remember!
Wish You Were Here…
We recently wrapped up the Piccabeen Postcard competition that TreeKiwi has been running on our forum. We’ve had a lot of great entries to choose from and finally settled on the top three, feel free to check them all out on the above linked thread, but for convenience here’s our winning entry from DarkHunterxx (big congrats!):
These Missions are the G.O.A.T!
I hope that pun “worked”, but in any case, we have new missions! This week we added a whole new series of activities for you to do based around our agile Feral Goat population. These missions certainly raised a few chuckles when we showed them off on stream, we hope the rest of you enjoy them. The concept itself came from forum member Tanngnjost, many thanks!
Our Bags are Packed…
Or well, our ever-faithful hunting dog’s bags are! This week’s new content consisted of two stylish, and very functional, packs for your dogs to carry supplies in. The two new colour options consist of the Summer Forest and Winter Forest patterns and are sure to look great on any occasion! Or well, I guess the purpose of camouflage is not to be “seen” at all…but you get my meaning. 😉
Free Species Rotation
To aid everybody in their feral goat missions they are of course on free rotation this week, along with one of our newest arrivals to the EHR, the Sitka Deer.
Back to Goats…
To complement our new missions we’ve discounted a whole bunch of goodies that’ll come in handy. Please do drop by the in-game store and take your pick, I highly recommend that 7mm Bullpup if you didn’t have one already!
Until next week!
/Graham
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Hello Hunters,
Welcome to the last Status Update of the year! As you’ve likely noticed we’ve been progressively getting more festive, and soon marks the time when the Devs will go away for a well deserved break, and lots of holiday food!
On the Subject of the Holidays…
A quick update on our Holiday Event! We still have plenty more to go and we are seeing some excellent participation from all of our fans. Best of luck grabbing some prizes! The prizes themselves you can count on receiving in the New Year at the very latest, although all being well you should get them on the 25th (that 9.3x74R O/U sure makes for a great gift for the lucky winners!).
Don’t forget that our very own Mat/TreeKiwi/TK (he goes by many names, can get confusing…) will be continuing with some streams and assisting with those missions during the break, so please do check in and keep him company! twitch.tv/expansiveworlds
The Holidays Came Early!
We had some VERY happy Devs recently when this aid package arrived all the way from Vienna!
Community member D3AKUs sent us a box containing all kinds of delicious Austrian goodies, my stomach was pleased, my bathroom scales likely not so much! D3AKUs, thank you SO much, it’s really appreciated and we hope that in return we can give you the gift of an awesome game, all throughout 2018, and for many more years to come!
Deck the Halls (or Trophy Lodge…)
We highly recommend you take a peek at your “Classy” style trophy lodges before the holiday period ends. We’ve sprinkled some seasonal magic around and feel that it’s now really the place to be to really get into that festive spirit! Sources say that the red in the decoration really sets off that in Rudolph’s nose quite nicely. 😉
Free Rotation
Our current free rotation for our guest hunters bring the Feral Goat and Arctic Fox into the mix. Extra-stealthy tactics will be needed to get past the heightened senses of these two creatures, good luck!
This sign’s me out personally until next year, but keep your eyes peeled for a Holiday farewell from the rest of the team very soon!
Discussion
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Hi Hunters!
Or maybe we should say “G’day”? Today marks the unveiling of Piccabeen Bay!
The team has been hard at work over the past months creating what we hope to be one of our best reserves to date. We set the bar pretty high when we created Timbergold Trails, and we have aimed to maintain that same standard of quality, love and attention to detail with Piccabeen Bay. As well as all-new flora and species, there’s been some technical changes we’ve rolled out for the first time. Read on or the full run-down!
A New Reserve, With New Inhabitants
When stalking the tropical woodlands of Piccabeen Bay. we’d recommend you bring out the “big guns”. This reserve features our biggest animal to date (also, the biggest horns – a real treasure for your trophy lodges), the mighty Water Buffalo! This sedate-looking bovid, as its name suggests, can often be found wandering around swamps or rivers. But be on the lookout, the Buffalo’s calm exterior gives way to fearsome charges should it feel threatened. No hunter wants to be on the receiving end of 600 kg (1,300 lb) of charging horns and muscle!
On the subject of big bovids, we move on to our next inhabitant of Piccabeen Bay, the Banteng. Although at a glance similar in appearance to the Buffalo, a Banteng can be easily differentiated by its high, almost upright, curved horns. No need to panic should you meet one, these are a lot more docile than their Buffalo cousins! Originally introduced to Northern Australia by the British as a livestock animal, the Banteng fast adapted to its new home and spread prolifically.
Moving away from the big lumbering beasts above to the more delicate Rusa and Sambar deer. These two deer species are biologically allied but can be differentiated by their size. Whilst a big Sambar can weigh up to 546 kg (1,204 lb) the Rusa is much more diminutive with around 135 kg (300 lb) being more common. Both animals however sport a fine rack of antlers that will be sure to look great in your trophy lodges! We’ve also equipped Rusa and Sambar with some lovely new behaviours and animations, and hope you’ll enjoy the new level of realism and immersion they offer. You can grab the new Rusa Deer “Grunt” Caller in the store, however hunting Sambar Deer will require extra skill and patience. We plan to release urine sprays for Sambar and Rusa deer in the not-too-distant future.
Now for our last inhabitant of Piccabeen Bay, we shouldn’t forget the Feral Hogs! Unlike the Wild Boar, this animal has clear lineage to domesticated livestock and tends to either be an escapee of farms, or a direct descendant of said freedom-loving suidae. Pigs of all kinds are lets say… very enthusiastic feeders. Their foraging and digging of roots can cause extensive damage to plants, even resulting in serious erosion issues around rivers and such. Save the world, hunt a Feral Hog! 😉
Things Are Hotting Up!
Inspired by the hot tropical forest region of Australia, we wanted to differentiate the feeling of the reserve with more than just new plant life and animals. Similar to Whiterime Ridge, we have introduced a map-wide mechanic which takes into account the punishing nature of the climate.
The new warm weather mechanic is something that will begin to take effect as you progress into long hunts. Your screen edges will start to blur and your aim will not be as true or steady as it was before. In order to combat this, we’ve introduced a new Water bottle item (you’ll receive three of these for free, and they replenish automatically at the beginning of each session) which you can take a sip from to stave off the effects from the heat. Like in real life, you slowly recover when standing still and overheat faster when running. You also need to be smart about the clothes you are wearing (all the basic clothes you received for free when registering for an account at theHunter will work great, and you can find the new warm weather resistance parameter in the store description for each clothing item). The new Sneaky 3D Tropical Forest camo gear with its high-tech synthetic materials will keep you protected not only against the heat but also from animals’ eyes. On an average-length hunting session, you shouldn’t feel overly impacted by this effect, but we would NOT recommend wearing arctic gear or bringing your heated tents!
In addition to Piccabeen Bay, the new warm weather gameplay mechanic has been rolled out to Bushrangers Run, given the similar climate. The Outback outfit, a common choice for hunters of Bushrangers Run, will also help keep the warm weather effects at bay.
What’s Special About This Reserve? A Word From Alena.
The tropical forest environment was the clear winner of our last player survey and we were happy to take this opportunity to add something new and unique to theHunter Classic.
For one, our programmer Patrik took a stab at something we wanted to implement for a long time – running water. You can find small rivers with running water throughout Piccabeen Bay.
Secondly, we’ve also added thunder and lightning, to add a special touch of atmosphere to this reserve when it rains. Like Timbergold Trails, released last year, Piccabeen Bay won’t support low settings. This means both Timbergold Trails and Piccabeen Bay are forced to medium scene complexity, even if you set this to low in the launcher. For more information on this decision, please check this status update.
Since technology development doesn’t stand still and we keep receiving conflicting reviews on how the game plays on some computers, today we are introducing “recommended settings”.
Recommended settings:
Hello Hunters,
Weekend is fast approaching, and what better way to wrap up your week than with a read through our Status Update? We have the name of our new reserve to share, some behind the scenes chat with our art team, and new seasonal goodies have been dug out from the back of Doc’s Shed.
What Sounds Better than Tropical Forest?
Piccabeen Bay! As Alena announced on-stream yesterday, we now have a name for our new Australia-inspired reserve! We took a lot of inspiration from the suggestions that were made on the forum but didn’t quite find “the one”, as such we thought why not ask our resident in-team Aussie, Bethany? The name itself comes from the Piccabeen palm, a.k.a Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, which you’ll find growing abundantly throughout the reserve. Here’s an example:
Seeing IS Believing
Yesterday marked our first look at Piccabeen Bay as we played some of the new reserve live on stream. Mat, myself (Graham), Alena, and special community guest, HooCairs took us through some of the sights and got face to face with the reserve’s inhabitants. We even had a brief visit from an albino Buffalo, which we promptly lost in the foliage…lets hope one of you can find it for us when the reserve is live!
If you weren’t able to make the stream then please do take a look at the VOD (that’s what the cool kids call “video on demand” dontcha know?).
We should mention that we’ll be streaming most days on the run-up to the holidays taking you through the Holiday Event Missions, but our next Piccabeen Bay stream will be on Tuesday 12th December. Catch us at 16:00 CET at twitch.tv/expansiveworlds
Meet Some More of the Team
Of course the whole team is very busy putting in the final polish to the reserve, but I managed to grab one of our 3D artists, Mattias, and pitched him the same questions Moe and Carolina answered last week.
First-up are some examples of what it is that Mattias looks at, and creates, all day. We have a view of Piccabeen Bay followed by some of the textures that went into the reserve itself.
And some quick Q&A with Mattias himself:
What has been your favorite part of working on the new tropical forest reserve?
Mattias: I really enjoyed the opportunity to add new features, as well as cooperating with the programmers to improve things across the reserve.
What has been the trickiest part to get “just right”?
Mattias: Getting the feeling of a dense tropical forest but still thinking about performance was a real challenge!
What part of community interaction helps you most with your job?
Mattias: Getting feedback on plants, density, crossings are all very useful. (Graham: We had a great live example of the latter in our stream yesterday)
Tune in next week for some more art team behind the scenes with our 2D/3D artist, Johan.
What’s Up Doc?
Doc is feeling festive and taken time to bring out some seasonal goodies from the back of his shed. Feel free to drop by the store and pick out a nice holiday sweater or some accessories to make those hunts a little more “jolly”. 😉 On the subject of jolly…here’s some of the Marketing and theHunter Classic team today:
Hello Hunters!
We have a particularly packed update for you today, with news of holiday activities, upcoming content, store discounts and new faces on the team. Grab yourself a comfy chair and dig in!
Our Team Size Just Leveled Up!
Please welcome the latest addition to the theHunterClassic team, Carolina!
Hi all!
My name is Carolina and I have recently joined theHunter Classic team as an art intern from FutureGames where I study 3D art.
Besides drawing, doing 3D stuff and playing games I enjoy taking walks and training my dog. It is a Toller (Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever) and he is full of energy and loves agility!
I am very excited to join this awesome team at Expansive Worlds and look forward to working with everyone!
/Carolina
Please give Carolina a big welcome! You can already see some of her work in the new Holiday Event trophies. Which leads us to…
Winter (Holiday Event) Has Come.
What would Winter be without traditions? We all have our own to look forward to, but one thing I think we all share is our annual Holiday Event!
The event went live today and consists of a whole host of competitions, missions and store sales to keep you busy during the dark depths of winter (or well, not so dark for our fans in California perhaps, but you get the mood I’m conveying!). Prizes range from in-game consumables, deployable towers, or even something really special, an as-yet unreleased 9.3x74R O/U Break Action Rifle!
First place gets an extra cherry on top in the form of the also unreleased 1.1-8×30 Rifle Scope to go with their new weapon. Oh, and there’ll be trophies, lots of trophies!
We kick things off with the “I’m Dreaming of a Whitetail Christmas” mission, so grab your weapon of choice and go bag some!
For our traditional holiday present this year our artist Johan made a special profile image, but you will have to work for it a bit. As soon as you get 80 000 jollyPoints, it’ll be unlocked in your Profile settings. Enjoy!
Remember, new activities and item sales kick off daily, so be sure to check-in! Best advent calendar ever?
Downtime Compensation
In the theme of “giving” we are crediting all players with 2 days of premium license time to compensate for recent server issues. We hope things will go a lot smoother for you all in the run up to holidays, apologies for any inconvenience caused.
A Behind the Scenes Look at Our Next Big Release
The work on our next reserve is coming along nicely (no, we can’t give you a release date just yet, but soon!), so we thought to give you a sneak peek at what’s to come, along with Q&A from some of the folks that are working to make it one of our most beautiful yet. You’ll get a mix of some alpha in-game footage along with some animations and images straight from our artist’s tools!
First up some contributions from our Animator, Moe. Here you can see three different animations of the soon-to-be huntable water buffalo; a slow trot, stopping from a run, then an idling water buffalo in…umm, water. 😉
Next we have another new species, in an entirely new setting! Feast your eyes on the graceful sambar deer, set in our new tropical forest environment.
Now, a short Q&A with Moe himself:
What research do you do to look for realistic poses or color tones for animals?
Moe: Before I start animating I take a couple of days to gather pictures & video references on how the animal moves and behaves, I also look into the animal skeletal shape and try to get it as accurate looking as possible.
What has been your favorite part of working on the new tropical forest reserve?
Moe: Water buffaloes!
What has been the trickiest part to get “just right”?
Moe: SWIMMING COWS! It took a lot of time to figure out how Water Buffalo behave in the water, it wasn’t easy to find good & clear video references.
And finally, what part of community interaction helps you most with your job?
Moe: Reading through our forums is very helpful, many of our community members are real life hunters and they always push us in the right direction.
Big thanks to Moe, spectacular work as I’m sure you’ll all agree!
Now we have some contributions from Cecilia, a Character Artist on theHunter Classic team. In order of appearance, the Sambar Deer, Rusa Deer, Banteng, and then finally the water buffalo. Again, these are taken direct from the tools Cecilia works with daily.
And the same questions we put to Moe, but from Cecilia’s perspective:
What research do you do to look for realistic poses or color tones for animals?
Cecilia: I try to find find good references, about 15+ images per gender, with at least one image per color variation. Then I project the textures onto the animal to get the correct colors and clean them up. Once the animal is in-game, I tweak the colors if they appear too dark or too bright.
What has been your favorite part of working on the new tropical forest reserve?
Cecilia: Sculpting the animals in Z-brush (work tool)
What has been the trickiest part to get “just right”?
Cecilia: The fur direction of the animal and finding good reference where the animal looks beautiful.
What part of community interaction helps you most with your job?
Cecilia: I’m inclined to agree with Moe! The comments made by real hunters on our forums really helps us replicate animals in the setting of our game.
Want to See All of This In Action!
Join myself and Mat in next Thursday’s stream as we take you all on a tour of the reserve for the first time! The stream begins at 16:00, Thursday December 7th, twitch.tv/expansiveworlds and we have a LOT to show you, so perhaps we can be convinced to stretch this one out some. Come armed with lots of questions, and praise, we really like praise! 😉
On the topic of streaming, we’ll be kicking up the frequency a little in the run-up to the holidays as Mat gives you some advice on completing our daily missions. Hit that “Follow” button on twitch so you can get notified when we go live!
And You Want to Name the Reserve Too?!
We are still accepting community suggestions for the name of our new reserve. Now is your chance to make your mark on the game permanently! Tips: think of something in “theme” with the reserve, it should be something easily remembered/pronounced
Have a great weekend everybody, we sure have an exciting week to look forward to. Please join in the discussion about today’s Status Update here.
/Graham, Mat and the rest of the theHunter:Classic team
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Hi all!
Welcome to another weekly status update! This time we haven’t quite so many goodies to talk about, but it doesn’t take a detective to work out that a little quiet period means we could be working towards something special. Apparently Halloween is just around the corner? 😉
Let’s start with a new addition to the team!
Hello! My name is Caroline Kullman and I’m new here to Expansive Worlds. I’m a part of Marketing, and will be working with video editing and 2D graphics which includes everything from video sequences and trailers to print and web material. I have previously worked as a packaging designer, freelancer and as an in-house designer. I’ve also worked as a photographer and more recently as an editing apprentice. In my spare time I like oil and watercolor painting, traveling and playing adventure/first-person shooter video games. I also probably have the world’s fluffiest cat named Gizmo which is the kindest and most gorgeous creature in existence. Looking forward to making some awesome content for you!
Bundles of bundles!
We hinted about the upcoming bundle week in our last Status Update, well now it’s in full swing! Be sure to check the store each day between now and 23:59 Monday to pick up some bargains!
Taking on the Pack!
We introduced a shiny new set of 10 Grey Wolf missions to the existing selection. First-up you’ll need to assist Tala with culling some particularly aggressive wolves, we’ll let you discover how the missions unfold from there!
This Week’s Free Rotation
This week we have two particularly fearsome targets for you to go after, the Grey Wolf and the lethal Roe Deer! But seriously…no joke…the Roe deer, according to our logs, has been the perpetrator in their fair share of Hunter attacks!
Join in the discussion about this week’s Status Update here.
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Hi all!
It’s Friday! How about we celebrate the beginning of the weekend (and hopefully lots of hunting), with a status update? First-up, this week’s new addition to the store, the 30R O/U Break-Action Rifle!
Double the Barrels, Twice the Fun!
The 30R O/U Break-Action Rifle is for the hunter that wants both serious stopping-power and the ability for a quick follow-up shot, all in the same package. This rifle is right at home when used for all of the cervids, feral hogs, or even bears! It’s also pretty darned beautiful to look at we think you’ll agree!
.30 R Double Barreled Rampage
As is tradition for all new store arrivals, we’ve cooked up a coinciding competition. For this challenge you’ll be tasked with using your shiny new purchase across a spread of species. Sticking with our “double” theme, the best two combined weights of the target animals will go towards scoring.
Em$ and a trophy are both up for grabs, get to it!
Bundles of Bargains!
A little bird tells me that as of Monday our store bundles will be getting some extra attention! Who knows, we might even see some fan-made suggestions in there. 😉 We recommend checking the store throughout the week to see if you can fill in some gaps in your hunting toolkit!
A View To A Kill
To keep you occupied before next week’s bundle extravaganza kicks-off we have a selection of popular optics to complement your loadout with. The 7x42mm Rangefinder Binoculars are a personal favourite, and sure to be of help to those with a particular passion for bowhunting.
Winners of Our Stylishly Snapped Shed Competition!
We had a whole array of entries to our recent antler-shed competition, you can see our three winners (along with a special mention) below:
3rd Place – AngelOne63
This entry from AngelOne63 grabbed our attention primarily for the excellent use of facial ornamentation combined with that stylish day-glo yellow shirt! Congrats to you!
2nd Place – Tana95
This shot had it all, a monster elk, a furry faithful hunting partner, AND a huge shed antler!
1st Place – Hawkeye
I chose this winner just for the sheer innovation in thinking to use shadows as their preferred medium. Big congratulations!
And speaking of shadows…although it missed the deadline, we couldn’t not give Hoocairs a mention for this one!
Weekly Game Update
We of course had a game update this week. There were some tweaks and adjustments to both the new comeback caller and the duck-call lanyard. I recommend taking a look to see the latest changes.
And finally…a sneak peek at something new…
We know that trophy lodges have been a popular feature, so we thought we’d give you a little more freedom to “make them yours”. Upcoming trophy lodge customisation options will give you various options to truly personalise your own hunting haven. For example, do you prefer a rugged stonewalled feeling?
Or do rough-cut timber walls and parquet floors hold a stronger appeal?
Of course this is all work in progress, but we can’t wait to share with you the finished product!
There’s been plenty to share this week, as always please do join in discussion about this week’s news here.
Have a great weekend!
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Changes:
Bug fixes: