Howdy hunters and huntresses,

Time for another status update!

New landing page & sign-up is live

Yesterday we released the new landing page and sign up process which will hopefully make it easier for new players to join theHunter family and get started with hunting. It didn’t go as smoothly as we had planned (as many of you know) and we are still experiencing some issues with launcher and browser access. You can read more about these issues and how to solve them in the interim, on your end, in our producer Philipp’s post here. We are continuing to work on fixing the remaining issues and will keep you updated in the respective forum thread. Thank you for bearing with us!

The mystery of the .243 Carbon Rifle

Many of you noticed (some within nanoseconds) the non-buyable but sleek-looking .243 Bolt Action Rifle – Carbon in the store, and started speculating as to what was going down. Well, I’ve got two pieces of news for you. One good and one bad. In keeping with tradition, let’s start with the bad. It won’t be buyable. The good news however, is that you can get it for free by verifying your email via Settings. If you do that, in addition to the rifle you will also receive 3 membership days (which will be added to existing memberships) as well as some other items, including a ground blind. Please note that you can only receive those rewards once, even if you change your email address afterwards.

Win the Beretta backpack from My Hunting Shop

Today we’re launching a new competition in collaboration with one of our partners, My Hunting Shop. An online marketplace for all things hunting and outdoors. The competition will take place on Hirschfelden and will last for 15 days, and the winner will receive the super awesome Beretta Modular Backpack 35 l, kindly supplied by My Hunting Shop, sent directly to wherever you live. You can see the bigger brother of our prize backpack “in action” in the video below, and I bet it’ll make you want that bad boy! Top three players on the leaderboard will also get unique trophies. So, go activate the competition and make sure to check My Hunting Shop, they’ve got a bunch of cool stuff there.

Rockies update

As the work on the new reserve continues, we thought it would be a good time to name our baby. So as tradition dictates, we delegate this task to you, our creative community who not only always know better but are brilliant at these things. Think of such masterpieces of names like Whiterime Ridge and Rougarou Bayou.

The rules are the same – come up with a great name that would fit with the existing EHR reserves nicely and represent the uniqueness of the location we showed you in the screenshots and video before. We are looking forward to your creative outbursts – share them in this thread!

Warning! The following announcement may be too graphic for some computers 🙂

On a final note, throughout the development of the new reserve, a lot of time has been spent debating the question of low graphic settings. Each reserve we have made to date has supported low scene complexity. This means every tree, shrub, rock and so on, requires a low-poly model to be created. As everyone knows, graphics technology has advanced leaps and bounds since the release of theHunter, and this is an area that continues to develop rapidly. Unfortunately we cannot afford to be held back by older hardware or system configurations any longer, and we have taken the hard decision to release this reserve with medium, through to very high graphics settings only. It is hoped that this decision will assure a more aesthetically pleasing and polished gameplay experience for the majority and, from an internal development perspective, optimise and streamline the process of creating new reserves and associated assets.

That’s it from us for today.

Happy hunting!

Discussion

Hello hunters,

Time for a short status update from the EW headquarters.

Summer Fiesta

The Fiesta is gaining speed and volume as more and more animals are being added. This week Turkey and Coyote have joined the competition, with more animals to come. Important information for players competing – the rules have recently changed. Now the best score of all your harvests of each species counts towards your leaderboard result, not only of the first three as originally announced at the beginning. The reason for this change is that our system is currently not able to handle such a condition in multispecies competitions, which was, sadly, only discovered after the start of the Fiesta. The good thing is that the table is still open and you can improve your scores even for the first added species. Just be mindful of your attempts and be strategic. Good luck!

Also, starting from this week, it’s no longer possible to activate a competition while in the middle of a hunting session. This change was implemented to prevent people from manipulating the (previously) existing loophole, and gaining an unfair advantage in competitions.

Cable-backed Bow

On Wednesday we released a new weapon, probably the coolest-ever addition to our archery arsenal. The cable-backed bow. It’s a primitive weapon inspired by the bows made by native people of America. It’s not our easiest weapon to handle and certainly takes some practice to get the knack of it but placing that perfect shot from this sophisticated bow is so much rewarding and enjoyable. Well, try it yourself if you want to experience something different.

Duck Game Design Competition

Finally, a small reminder that the deadline of our game design competition is approaching. You have three days left to come up with a great mission or competition pack and write your name in the chronicles of theHunter forever. You can find the details here.

That’s it from us for today. Next week we’ll have more news to tell about the new big thing in the making as well as a game patch with something new, and fixes for something old. For now, enjoy the weekend and see you out there in the EHR woods!

Discussion

Howdy hunters,

The summer is here, the short time when it’s actually bearable to be in Sweden 😀 The EW team members are slowly drifting off to their vacations and it’s getting quieter in the office. Having said that, the work on developing and improving theHunter continues. Earlier today we released a patch with fixes and a GPS pin for your dogs and you can find a technical update from our producer Philipp about our ongoing work and plans below.

Tomorrow it’s the big holiday of Midsummer in this part of the world, during which the whole Sweden will be drinking spicy snaps and eating strawberries in the midnight sun. To celebrate it theHunter style, we are throwing in a weekend membership sale, so you can renew your membership at up to 30% off. Check the image below for the codes and please note that the sale runs until Monday, June 27th. There are also some great weekend discounts on duck equipment and weapons, up to 50% off – check them out.

Game Improvements Update

Hello Hunters,

with the continuing work on game improvements, we want to update you about our efforts, what has been done since the last announcement and what is to come.

This time we are taking a more general look at both server / database and also gameplay improvements. The goal is to get to the next level in terms of communication for game improvements and to give you a better overview about what is being worked on instead of repeating ourselves that game health is the main priority for us.

Improvements for server stability

Calle and Emil are monitoring our performance and stability around the clock, looking for slow and stressful processes and queries. After identifying the main offender, they released a major update to how the inventory system responds and is updated yesterday. There are no perceivable changes for players but we hope to improve stability and connectivity significantly. Releasing a fix is of course only the first step so we will collect data over the next days and then decide how to move on.

In the meantime they look for the next biggest offender, rinse and repeat and also help the client programmer by improving our crash reporter to be more detailed which helps us to prioritize what to fix next.

Next to that we are working on a bigger plan to relieve our database making better use of the Google service that we use. We might share the details of this in the next update or a later one.

Improvements for gameplay

Our client programmers have not been lazy either. After releasing the Scent Hound, they fixed several random crashes that slipped our testing and analyzed the main problems (crashes, bugs) we currently face in-depth.

We can’t share any specifics yet but we have our eyes mostly on graphical performance and memory, user interface and system memory used by sounds.

While we work on solutions for this (which will be shared in the next update or a later one) we released a patch today with fixes for Turkey and Pheasant scoring issues.

We hope this gives you a better impression of what we are working on and of the improvements to come. Stay tuned for the next updates as we share more specifics, fixes and the plans how to tackle what is left to do.

All the best and good hunting,

Your Phil and the rest of theHunter team

Discussion

Nach unzähligen Stunden der Arbeit freuen wir uns, euch nun endlich das neue Huntertalk Forum präsentieren zu können.

Für alle neuen deutschsprachigen Spieler möchten wir uns kurz vorstellen: Huntertalk.de ist die offizielle deutschsprachige Community von deutschsprachigen Spielern für deutschsprachige Spieler. Wir sind für dich der Anlaufpunkt #1 wenn du dich mit anderen Spielern austauschen, diskutieren oder zu einer Jagdrunde verabreden möchtest.

Huntertalk richtet sich vor allem an all jene Spieler die so ihre Probleme mit der englischen Sprache haben. Hier findest du alle Spiel- und Status-Updates komplett auf Deutsch.

Huntertalk nicht nur im neuen Design

Viel Zeit und viel Arbeit hat es gekostet, aber es hat sich gelohnt. Neben bekannten Forenfunktionen findet ihr nun auch kleine praktische Helfer die euch z.B. das Einbinden von Bildern direkt im Thread oder Post erleichtern ohne es erst auf einer externen Seite hochladen zu müssen. Das Portal versorgt euch mit den neuesten Infos aus dem Forum. Die Shoutbox ermöglicht euch eine kurzfristige Verabredung zur gemeinsamen Jagd oder einfach nur einen kleinen Smaltalk.

Du hast einen Youtube-Kanal zum Thema theHunter? Auch dafür gibt es bei uns einen Platz. Zeige der Community deine Videos und mit etwas Glück bekommt dieses auch auf unseren sozialen Medien seinen Platz.

Wie gewohnt übersetzen unsere Übersetzer alle neuen Infos für euch. Das Eventteam konzeptioniert neue Wettbewerbe und richtet diese aus.

Du hast ein (technisches) Problem? Kein Ding. Für fast jedes Problem findest du bei uns eine Lösung. Musst du doch einmal dem Support schreiben und bist der englischen Sprache nicht mächtig, wird dir auch dabei gerne geholfen.

Profitiere vom Wissen erfahrener Spieler und gehe mit ihnen gemeinsam auf die Jagd.

Und noch einiges mehr…

Huntertalk jetzt auch bei Facebook, Instagram und Twitter

In den sozialen Medien möchten wir euch ausschließlich mit den aktuellsten Informationen versorgen. Neben den Game-Informationen findet ihr außerdem Ankündigungen zu den Huntertalk.de-Wettbewerben, Siegerehrungen, Videos von Usern für User, Einsteiger Guides und noch einiges mehr. Natürlich wieder komplett auf Deutsch.

Neues Wettbewerbs- und Newslettersystem

Unser Eventteam hat, in Zusammenarbeit mit FumarPorros, die Huntertalk-Wettbewerbe auf eine neues Niveau gehoben. Dank des kraftvollen Tools sind die Wettbewerbe für den Einsteiger genauso interessant und fair wie für den Veteranen. Messe auch du dich mit den Großen und sahne den ein oder anderen em$ ab. Eventuell schaffst du es auch auf einen der Plätze der Jahresbesten und erhältst nochmals tolle Prämien für deine Arbeit!

Verpasse keinen Wettbewerb mehr, weil du vergessen hast dich zu informieren! Melde dich für den Wettbewerbsnewsletter an und erhalte den kompletten Wettbewerb als E-Mail und PN im Forum.

Tools von FumarPorros

FumarPorros stellt euch seine praktischen Tools für das Spiel zur Verfügung.

• Waidgerecht auf einen Blick:

Seht auf den ersten Blick, welche Waffen/Munition für ein Tier zugelassen ist oder schaut welches Tier ihr mit welcher Waffe bejagen dürft.

• Map Placementtool:

Dieses Tool soll euch dabei behilflich sein, etwas auf einer TH-Map zu veranschaulichen. Das kann die Darstellung eines vollständigen Equipment-Aufbaus oder aber auch nur eine einzelne Markierung oder Text sein. Das Besondere daran ist, das man die Bearbeitung nicht nur als Bild, sondern auch als Textdatei abspeichern kann. So kann die Karte bei Bedarf immer wieder editiert, mit euren Freunden geteilt und verglichen werden.

• Vorkommen:

Mit diesem Tool könnt ihr ganz schnell sehen, wo ihr welche Tiere auf der Map finden könnt.

• Organ Tool:

Klein aber fein. Schaut mit nur einen Klick nach wo ein Tier seine Organe hat und tragt einen sauberen Schuss an.

Sei ein Teil der offiziellen deutschsprachigen Community und finde bei uns deinen Platz. Wir hoffen, dich bald bei uns begrüßen zu können.

Euer Huntertalk.de Team

Howdy hunters,

Welcome to our slightly belated weekly update.

New and (better) old stuff

On Wednesday we released a game patch with some new things, as well as improvements for old items. Nifty scopes for some of our old reliable rifles, enhanced functionality for the two person tree stand, new iron sights for the .243, .270 and .300 rifles, increased magnification for the spotting scope and more. You can find the full list here.

Battle of the classic rifles

We launched a pretty cool event which everyone seems to be really enjoying so far. A Classic Showdown. The whole community is divided into four teams and fighting against each other to have their chosen classic rifle named the best of the best. As you can tell, I am in team K98k (which is so going to win ;)). What about you? Have you picked your team yet?

New collectibles

This week we also dropped a bunch of lovely eagle feathers and ammonite fossils on Val-des-Bois, one of the reserves that hasn’t had any collectibles until now. Later we will be adding some cool stuff for you to pick up on the other two empty reserves – Rougarou Bayou and Whiterime Ridge. Stay tuned!

Scent hound update

We are starting the testing phase for scent hounds, together with selected people who applied for our closed beta session. If you haven’t received an email from us this time, please don’t be discouraged. Hopefully next time you’ll be more lucky!

There have been a lot of questions about the upcoming scent hounds, everything shall be revealed in due course. We are also planning our traditional pre-release livestream where you can watch them with your own eyes.

With the release of scent hounds we’ll be tweaking the behaviour of our retrievers, so they will become a little bit smarter (but not as smart as their sniffing brothers and sisters). All the dog equipment and accessories, since it is manufactured from a top quality super stretch material, will of course fit both types of dogs.

We also wanted to share with you a couple of sneak peek screenshots of the scent hounds. They are work in progress, but still – what a beauty!

Service disruptions

Over Tuesday and Wednesday night we had some problems which were caused by service outages experienced by our server provider Google. Please read the statement by our producer Philipp here.

Free species rotation

Finally, the next two animals in our free species rotation are Arctic Fox and Roe Deer. You can hunt them for free until Thursday 26 May, when they will be exchanged again with two other species. Guest players are now able to see animals they are allowed to hunt in the top right corner of the website once logged in.

That’s it from us for today.

Happy hunting!

Discussion

The Open Beta has started. Click here for a How To Guide on the Forum.

As we promised in our last status update, we are inviting everyone to try out the Polar Bear in our open beta. Come help us test the new ruler of the Whiterime Ridge!

Call to open beta testing – Start February 18th 2016

• The testing will take place on our beta server and will run for about a week (subject to change), starting from February 18th, around 16:00 CET. Please note that you won’t be able to create an account before that. If you already have an account from our previous open beta sessions, you will be able to log in starting from 16:00 CET (subject to change).
• From Wednesday until Friday we’ll be testing the “vulnerable” mode of the Polar Bear, after that – the special event mode.
• Players will be able to hunt all animals, regardless of whether they are members or not, and will receive 10 000 em$ for testing purposes.
• Please note that items you buy on our beta server with the aforementioned em$ won’t be transferred to your actual game account.
• After the end of the open beta your access to the server will be revoked.
• Testing on beta won’t have any impact on your actual game stats, hunter score, leaderboard positions etc.
• Because it’s a stress test, server hiccups are likely to happen, so your game could crash or get disconnected, response times might be longer etc.

How to participate in the testing:

1. Starting from tomorrow, February 18th, around 16:00 CET, go to https://www.thehunterbeta.com/ and create a new account/login to your existing one
2. If you are new to open beta – Download and install the beta game client from Downloads.
3. Hunt, hunt, hunt!

What we’d like you to pay special attention to while testing:

We will add the specific information before the open beta starts.

When testing on beta you are likely to see some historical testing data (competitions, leaderboards, players’ names and such). Please disregard that as this is dummy data randomly generated from our live server for testing purposes. There is also a chance that some icons and images are missing from the Beta servers so there is no need to report this.

Please report all your feedback in this thread.

Thanks a lot for supporting the game! 🙂

Features

• .303 British Bolt Action Rifle

• Added a new rare Kangaroo texture variation

Bug fixes

• Red Kangaroo model and texture tweaks

Discussion

Hello Hunters,

Here are a couple of news for you from the drizzly Stockholm:

It’s cloud o’clock

… at last. During our maintenance yesterday, as the final step of implementing a new server solution for theHunter, we moved our game server to the cloud. It’s been a long and rather complicated process and it’s not completely finalized yet, as we’re continuing putting out fires, smashing bugs and indulge ourselves in other exciting activities to ensure the game runs without a hitch. It will take a while once the new environment works as smoothly as intended; we’ll keep monitoring the server performance and resolve issues on the fly. As always, your help in reporting bugs is appreciated, you can do it in this thread, detailed descriptions are mostly welcomed.

We want to thank you for all your patience and support during this process of server move. To make it up to you for a downtime yesterday and game disrupting issues, we’ll be adding an extra day to all active memberships.

AMA with Björn

It’s time for a new ‘Ask Me Anything’ session and now it’s our game designer Björn who will be answering your questions. You can think of Björn as the director of theHunter who oversees the overall picture and knows game’s every nook and cranny. He is the guy to ask ”big” questions, like gameplay, environment, balance, story etc., but he is also able to give thorough replies to more specific inquiries.

Björn’s AMA thread will be unlocked for 48 hours, starting at 12 p.m. CEST on May 9th. All the questions will be moderated and supervised by the moderation team, the standard AMA rules apply.

Trailer competition reminder

In case you missed it last week, we have a trailer competition running, and it’s a bit less than one week left to submit your video. You can read the rules and enter the competition here.

That’s it for now, happy hunting!

Comments