Are some ducks playing hard to get and simply refusing to come and hang-out with your carefully place decoy spread? This caller is just what you need to tempt the more stubborn ducks out of their flock, and into your gunsights. Best used in conjunction with the Mallard Long Range Caller, the effect also stacks with deployed decoys.
That covers the “getting more” part of our duck addition, next up, “more conveniently”. We bring you, the Duck Caller Lanyard.
This quality-of-life item will conveniently put all of your favourite duck callers at your disposal via just one key-binding. With no need to assign individual callers to inventory slots this item unlocks a new hotkey function which brings up a menu wheel to speedily select any duck caller held in your bags. Handy!
You can see both of these new additions in action courtesy of “HooCairs” here:
Game Update
As well as the above goodies there were of course the usual updates and improvements to the game. The ability for guest players to trigger e-callers on and off in multiplayer was a much requested fix, also bears are looking a little less “far out”. 😉
At the time of writing this we have just over a day to go until the judging begins! We’ve seen some excellent entries so far, from the beautiful, to the technical, to the just slightly crazy. 😉 Please do get those last entries in soon to avoid disappointment!
To give you a taster of some of the competition, here’s an entry from forum user “kevin2106”
Ducky Deals, and Free Birds.
To mark the launch of this week’s duck goodies we’ve added a new permanent Duck Caller Bundle. Additionally, ducks have been added to the free rotation, there’s no better time to get out there and get some trophy birds! Also, please do pop by our store tomorrow, there might be some more duck related pleasant surprises for you there.
* Now multiplayer guest players can also toggle the hosts Electronic Callers on or off.
Bug fixes:
* Fix for the strange eyes brown bears can get sometimes when killed
* Various display-related tweaks and fixes to the antler sheds leaderboards
* Fixed for the wolf face being misshaped sometimes
* Corrected the breath effect position for all bears (they now breath with the anatomically correct part of the body!)
* Fix for the issue with feral goats not getting scared while eating
* Fix for the sitka deer antler sheds score. Incorrect scores will be removed from the leaderboard. * Fix for the electronic caller sound synchronisation in multiplayer
* Fix for some clipping issues for antler shed collectibles
Well, the bobcat fever is still going strong, our social media channels have been flooded with trophy shots of proud hunters with their kills! So, we’ll begin with a little round-up of our bobcat launch and then dig into the rest of the week’s goings-on.
The Cat is Out of the Bag
Well, what’s to say to begin with but “wow!”, the whole team has been so happy to see the results of their hard work so happily received. The excitement within the community has been palpable, and for that we thank you!
We’ve had excellent and informative videos from some of the usual suspects such as HooCairs and RonMctube, thread after thread of bobcat discussion on our forum, and lots of extremely creative trophy shots:
Credits to xOEDragonx for this beauty!
We don’t think we we’ll see the last of this furry critter, it seems to have become a real community favourite! Oh, did I mention, we hunted a particularly rare bobcat on launch day? The team quite liked this one!
Do you have thoughts or feedback regarding the bobcat and/or e-caller? Join in the discussion here.
Antler Sheds Are Here!
So, after adding a new animal to our reserves, why not some more collectibles? Many of you will know that it is common for deer to shed antlers every year, I in fact remember hunting for them as a kid back in England. 😉 Well, now you can try and spot them in theHunter too!
This has been a hotly requested feature for a long time, and we are very pleased to be able to get this feature out in the wild! Any reserve deer can be found, you can count on there being antler sheds. You can find single sheds, or even doubles, and each find is scored via our TruRacks system and logged in a leader-board for posterity. Eventually we even plan to add a full scoresheet!
Snap a Stylish Shed (No, Not the Wooden Kind!)
With a new feature for you to play with, it only made sense we should spice things up with some friendly competitiveness!
Over at our forum you can see the details of a new screenshot competition we’ve just started. You have the chance to get your hands on some em$ by showing off your creative side with some antler shed shots. We can’t wait to see your entries!
Wolves/Coyotes and Scoring
We just wanted to correct our previous communications about wolf/coyote scoring after the size adjustments. Scoring scales will in fact remain the same despite the size changes.
A Special Shout-Out to Xeygwyn!
During one of our streams a fan was talking about a snazzy app they’d made to help keep track of ethical ammunition for different species, it sounded pretty awesome so I suggested they share it with the community. Well, it’s now available for you to use!
We are really impressed with the dedication our fans have, and the general awesome community atmosphere that comes with it. Big thank you to Xeygwyn!
See you all for more news next week! In the meantime feel free to join the discussion here
As mentioned by Alena last week, it’s now me (Graham, Community Manager) who’ll be penning Status Updates for the foreseeable future. You shouldn’t see much of a change, it should still be the same great content, just perhaps with a slightly British twist here and there! 😉
With that out of the way, let’s get into it!
Bobcats, bobcats, and more bobcats!
Did I mention bobcats? So yes, it’s been quite a theme for us these past weeks. Since our reveal stream last Thursday we’ve been really thrilled to see all of the excitement around our latest addition to theHunter Classic, the whole team has been busy beavering away putting the final touches in place for release.
Seeing as today is the big day when you all get to hunt the bobcat for the first time, it would only make sense that our bobcat-fever continues with this status update!
For those of you who didn’t catch it yet, the bobcats can be found prowling in the Loggers’ Point, Whitehart Island, Rougarou Bayou, and Settler Creeks hunting reserves. You can find more details on their behaviour and gameplay in the Release notes from Patrick and Alena below.
Bobcat Release Notes
A feline in theHunter – finally!
Cats have been the most requested species in theHunter since a long, long time ago. They have been consistently high on the wishlist in last three player surveys in which we asked what species you would like to see added next. You can see the results below (click to enlarge, please note that other options are removed for everyone’s peace of mind ;)):
Player survey 2015
Player survey 2016
Player survey 2017
The main obstacle on the feline’s thorny path to the EHR has been the complexity of the animations and, to an even larger extent, the client code. We wanted to make an intelligent and graceful cat species that would do justice to the real world counterparts. The climbing trees function has been the main reason why cats have been moved down the priority list; to spare you a long technical explanation, it would require tons of time and resources to make it possible. However, when we voiced this in the community forum, the overwhelming reaction was that people would rather have a cat that doesn’t climb trees, as opposed to no cat at all. Back then, scratching our heads, we started considering adding it for real. Once we decided that there should be cats in theHunter Classic, the natural choice was the bobcat. They fit nicely in our older North American maps, and in addition to that, they are not the most famous for their tree climbing skills.
What’s new about this species?
Our bobcats are exceptionally smart and watchful animals, with extremely sharp eyes and a keen sense of smell. Remember Turkeys? Forget about them. Bobcats will have them for breakfast (alas, not literally) when it comes to wariness. This will make hunting them challenging, but not impossible. Luckily, we have plenty of lures and gear for them, more on this below.
As if this was not enough, compared to other species, the bobcat population is rather scarce, and they prefer their own company to that of their kin, moving exclusively solo. So, bagging one will feel like a real accomplishment!
Bobcats feature a completely new type of behaviour. They sprint, and they are lightning-fast run, capable of speeds that the red kangaroos of Bushrangers Run, our swiftest species to date, can only dream about. Another curious new behaviour we introduced is “hunting”. If you are lucky, you might spot bobcats jumping around trying to catch mice. It’s fascinating to watch.
And of course, animations. If you have a chance, while in your tree stand, spare a minute and watch a bobcat moving with your binos, it’s real work of art.
How can I hunt them?
Together with bobcats, we are also introducing a new type of lure. The electronic caller, “Shockwave”. Right now it only works for bobcats but later on we are planning to add sounds for more animals, for those that it makes sense. The electronic caller is a powerful piece of equipment, imitating the high-pitched sound of distressed mouse, it attracts cats from far away, which then sneak up towards the prey. A tree-stand / tripod combined with an electronic caller is a perfect set-up for hunting them, and for your convenience we’ve also added the possibility to activate the caller remotely. Your reaction speed needs to be spot on though; being such an intelligent species, after a while a bobcat realizes that the electronic caller is a trap and if you are too slow with your finger on the trigger, you might only see the black tip of its tail.
Motion predator decoys and our good old Predator “Jackrabbit” Caller also have a chance of attracting bobcats, although again, due to the intelligence of this magnificent creature, you are unlikely to receive the same consistent results as you are used to with coyotes and foxes. You simply have to try and see what works best for you.
On a side note
With the introduction of bobcats, we took the opportunity to bring our coyotes and wolves closer to real life scale, as they have been notoriously large. After today’s patch they will feature a smaller size and, hence, scoring, which is why today we are starting the new season!
Get Yourself a Prize-Winning Kitty
In tandem with the bobcat release there is of course a special mission set with a unique trophy to get your hands on! We suggest registering and getting your hunt underway as soon as possible, these missions will only be live until the end of September!
HooCairs About Bobcats?
Ummm…Hoocair does? Join him as he gets a very special first look at the bobcat, and demonstrates his hunting expertise across the various reserves the bobcat calls home.
There’s some great tips to be found inside!
Safety First! Account Security and You.
There have been a few issues cropping up recently that our support team has dealt with, we thought it would be good to refresh you all on some “good to knows” with regards to account security.
Never give your password to anyone, including us! No member of Expansive Worlds/Avalanche Studios will ever ask you for your password and you do not need to send it when contacting us.
With the above in mind, we’re unable to investigate rouge sibling purchases or ‘friends’ messing around in multiplayer games. So please, only use your account yourself.
Only purchase your memberships and em$ directly through us from the launcher or through Steam or Paymentwall, we’re unable to assist with any other purchases. We will never ask for your payment details, or ask you to make a payment directly to us, everything goes through our store:
Any issues with purchases from third party retailers has to go back through the retailer, we have no control over them.
Any e-mails you may get from an unofficial address are most likely a scam and shouldn’t be trusted. Our special offers always require you to log into your account and make your purchase that way, we will never ask you to make a payment directly to us through PayPal.
And finally, If you have any issues at all, please feel free to contact us at Customer Support or post on the official forums for community advice!
Wolves and Coyotes now have a smaller, more realistic size
New 22nd season starts today!
The Rustic Trophy lodge now features two more medium platforms for all your beautiful bobcats
The camo app now features the player backpack icon
Boar & Bear behavior: Added a check, so that one can’t exploit the fact that the animal needs to turn to be able to line up a charge. Before, a player could walk up to an angry animal, and then just make sure to walk in a circle around it. Now, the animal will run if the players comes close to it.
Bug fixes:
Fix for the roaming bug randomly affecting all animals and mostly noticeable with bears, a.k.a. “bear roaming bug”
Fix for the yellow tint glasses
Fix for the pheasant tail in the trophy lodge
Fix for the never ending spinning wheel after harvest screen
Fix for hogs and boars “freezing” sometimes when threatened
The summer and all its vacations and other distractions is finally over, so we can now focus on the stuff that really matters. Like bobcats. Which also means that our status updates are back to their regular weekly schedule, sharing with you all the good, the bad and the ugly happenings at theHunter Classic headquarters.
Bob the cat is coming!
Probably the main thing on everyone’s minds right now, our glorious felines, are being thoroughly tested as we speak. It’s going well and we will be ready to give you a sneak peek of the upcoming bobcats in our exclusive dev pre-release livestream tomorrow, during the usual Lock&Learn session at 16:00 CEST, on our official Twitch channel. A team of theHunter devs will be going after some bobcats, and if they are lucky you might actually see one. Those guys are not so easy to hunt, so I hope you are ready for a challenge!
There have been a lot of questions and musings about means of hunting bobcats. Our Motion predator decoys and Predator “Jackrabbit” Caller will work, but they won’t be as effective as what you are used to seeing with foxes and coyotes, as bobcats are exceptionally intelligent and, hence, cautious animals. We will be introducing a powerful electronic caller at the release which will lure them far more efficiently. You will learn more about this on the release day.
Also, to help you gear up for the upcoming bobcats, this weekend we will be running special sales and campaigns, so keep your eyes peeled for our announcements at the end of the week!
Farewell to Summer Fiesta
Our glorious Summer Fiesta event is – alas – over. It’s been a huge amount of fun, we hope that you all got a chance to participate and at least complete a mission or two. On Monday we awarded a total of 57 Doc’s Hunting Champion trophies to all the skillful hunters who managed to complete all three challenging mission packs, which makes this trophy even rarer than the famous crystal stag of 2014. Congratulations to all the owners, you can be truly proud of yourself! If you didn’t get yours this time, don’t fret, there will be more events and more rewards. The autumn and holidays seasons are (almost) upon us and as always, we promise you four months packed with events, trophies, sales, awesome releases and many more things to keep you loving theHunter Classic.
Team changes
You might have seen a new face lurking in the forums. Our new community manager Graham, who has recently joined the team. You can catch his introduction and welcome him properly in this thread. From next week onwards, Graham will be taking over these status updates and I am sure he will do an excellent job keeping you up to date with everything going on with theHunter Classic. I will continue talking to you in the forums, as per usual.
On another note, our community manager Stefan is leaving us this month to move on to new adventures. Thank you very much for everything Stefan, it’s been a true pleasure to have you at the steering wheel of our community, good luck to wherever life takes you next.
Game design competition winners
We have gone through the entries received for the last game design competition with a fine-tooth comb, and we are ready to announce the results! There were some fantastic entries, and we want to extend our gratitude to everyone who took the time to write up missions and competitions. We are extremely grateful for your input, and hope nobody will be discouraged if their entries are not chosen. Unfortunately, as with every competition, there can only be so many winners.
So, here are the results (the winning entries will be posted in the competition thread shortly). If there are more than one winners, the prize pool is shared, the Contributor title and the Almost DEV Jacket is awarded to all:
Feral Goats missions – Tanngnjostr (was chosen to design this mission pack out of the competition as we decided it’d be difficult to find a better goat aficionado in theHunter community)
Feral Goats competitions (our by far most popular category!) – 1) the number of the goat by Madrugo; 2) the Ultimate Stalker by TheSheWolf; 3) Mini Goat by Pittie; 4) Shepherd by TR_GorkemCanakcili; 5) Meat Mates by KingOmar.
Dall Sheep missions – xOEDragonx
Dall Sheep competitions – Ash1302
WT ptarmigans competitions – Andhii
Rock ptarmigan competitions – FR_Bugs (not complete set)
Willow ptarmigan competitions – Hifisch
We couldn’t pick the winner for ptarmigan missions as, same with the Grey Wolf missions in the last competition, we felt that the quality of submissions was slightly below the standards we want to meet at theHunter, so we will be designing those in house.
Red dot handgun scope
Last week we released a new and highly requested red-dot handgun scope, an excellent accessory for four of our side firearms, including the latest addition, the 10mm Semi-Automatic handgun. It’s been appreciated, judging by your feedback, which is sweet! Some of you have asked why it’s not possible to adjust the brightness of the red dot, as you can with the Aimpoint sights. The reason is that it is mounted in a slightly different way and provides a much more dynamic experience (Aimpoint sights open onto the whole screen when yielding a weapon and the handgun scope does not), and due to some technical limitations we have in our weapon and sight set-up, we had to make this compromise to make it work without jeopardizing the handgun functionality, allowing you to shoot fast.
Grizzly competitions
Today we added a new pack of community designed competitions. Grizzly bear ones created by our community member BuiuRei. They are now a part of our regular competitions schedule, enjoy!
Work continues on the bobcat, including tweaks to the animations, sounds, model, AI and gameplay dynamics. We’re getting closer to being able to show you this magnificent feline in all its glory, but in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple more screenshots to help whet your collective appetites.
For those who missed previous updates, our aim is to make the bobcat a fairly unique species in terms of gameplay (how the animal will be hunted and lured) and also make it highly elusive with heightened senses. Hopefully this will make for a unique hunting experience. After all, these are pretty tough to hunt in real life.
Bear roaming bug update
Roberto and Martin have now pinpointed the source of the roaming bug. As many of you have already speculated, the bug not only affects bears, but other species too, with bears having a higher chance “catching” it due to their gameplay specifics. Without going into too much detail, the problem was caused by an error triggered by animal state changes. The fix is already being tested and once we’ve satisfied that it is successful, it will be rolled out in a game patch. In the meantime, we apologize for the continued inconvenience this bug is causing so many of you. It was extremely tough to identify the underlying cause, but we got there in the end.
Stutzen the rifle
Last week we released the .30-06 Stutzen bolt action rifle, and judging by your reviews so far, it seems to be a success. We would love to hear more of your feedback. Do you enjoy the new rifle? Can any of you share trophy shots featuring it?
Last days of Fiesta
Our infamous Summer Fiesta event is slowly coming to an end. We hope that you have enjoyed the mission packs, and the ongoing series of competitions. From looking at our data, quite a bit more than the 23 players I reported in my last update, have completed the 3 mission packs. If you haven’t already done so, it’s not too late. The special trophy being issued by Doc for completing all 3 packs is still going to be very unique, so if you want to get your hands on it, be sure to do so before time runs out.
We will report back on the final numbers at the end of this event. Good luck in the remaining days to everyone taking part.
Thanks for stopping by! Today we are happy to announce the release of the new feature. Bait site management from the web or launcher. This has been requested for many years and we know how tiresome and, well, boring it is to start the game just to run to each of your bear barrels, hog feeders and mineral feeders to fill them up then wait for the attractiveness to kick in. Now you will be able to do it with one click of your mouse button on your commute to or from work, when the Black Bears of the EHR start calling to your soul inviting you for a cosy evening in Redfeather Falls 🙂
Introducing Bait site management
How this works?
You can access this feature via Settings > Game management > Bait sites. There you will see the list of your barrels and feeders, the amount of bait in them and the status (active / inactive / penalty). If you are not 100% sure how the baiting system works, here is a detailed description. Each bait site comes with coordinates and the location map, so you can easily tell which one is which.
From there you can fill your bait site, using the bait from your inventory, by paying a small fee of 5 em$ or 200 gm$ (there are discounted packs of 25, 50 and 100 refills that you can find under Services in the store, for those of you that have plenty of bait sites and use them a lot).
Please note that you need to have bait in your inventory to be able to use this feature, think of it as an additional premium service, improving your game experience and saving you time by taking away the hassle of filling bait sites manually. Remember, you can continue to fill your bait sites using the old school method.
What changed?
While working on this feature, Luna and Martin have found and fixed a whole bunch of bugs in the baiting system, here is the full list of fixes:
Fix for the issue when shooting an animal within the radius of a bait site didn’t trigger the penalty.
Fix for the issue when moving a bait site to a different place didn’t trigger the “inactive” cooldown.
Fix for the issue where a bait site being placed in the world didn’t set the “inactive” status correctly.
Fix for the issue where a bait site that had been emptied didn’t trigger the “inactive” status when refilled.
Fix for the issue with feeders being placed in a reserve didn’t have the correct reserve ID, thus rendering got broken.
Fix for the issue where the feeders didn’t remove the bait attractiveness from a feeder with penalty.
Fix for the issue with bait being consumed after a bait site is picked up and placed into the inventory.
Fix for the issue with barrels being picked up and placed down again not triggering the inactive status.
That’s it, hope you’ll enjoy this new feature!
UPDATE 18/8/2017: Following community feedback, We just released a function to choose the amount of bait to fill in your bait sites. Attention: you first need to pick the amount of bait you want to fill a specific bait site up to. I.e. if I want my bait site to have 40 baits in it, I would choose 40, regardless how much is left in my bait. After that you go to the bait site you want to refill and click Refill. The system automatically takes from your inventory the amount of bait needed to fill the bait site up to the desired amount and adds it to the chosen site. Eg. I had a bait with 5 bait in and I want to have 40 in it, I choose 40 in the top right corner of the UI, click refill button next tot hat bait site and 35 bait get consumed from my inventory (40-5=35). That’s it. Please note that cost per service is the same, regardless how much bait you put into your bait site. Enjoy!
Antler shed collectables are coming!
Here’s something I’ve hinted about before, and it’s another feature that has been asked for countless times. New collectables! Antler sheds with their very own leaderboards. Roberto and Patrick are working on enabling all our male antlered species shed their crowns in respective reserves and Luna is working on sorting out the scoring and leaderboards. Stay tuned for more news on this!
Lock&Learn – Devs vs Community
Oh, and don’t forget to join us today at 16:00 on our official Twitch channel to celebrate 3000 followers. Johanna, Stefan, Greg and myself will clash against four community members: Nightmare, Dragonhorn, Raw100 and magicISO on the battlefield of Hirschfelden. Who do you think will win? See you there!
Pim Holvfe, Avalanche Studios CEO, and some Swedish “rapphöna” (partridge).
You might have seen a new face lurking in the forums. 
