this week’s status update is again brought to you by Phil who – this time – will actually go on a short vacation trip over the weekend, hopefully also slurping drinks in the sun as our beloved Alena still does.
Enough chit chat though, let’s get to the far more interesting updates.
Movember
As mentioned on the forums, this year there will not be any fresh beards or facial hairstyles. We decided to spend more time polishing the work on Timbergold Trails and to invest our efforts into core content, such as the upcoming Gray Wolf.
Of course, we will still participate in creating awareness about cancer and hopefully improve regular and early check-ups. Check out some of the team members trying their best at growing a mustache on Instagram. And of course all existing beard styles are available in the in-game shop where we will give $2 per sold mustache to charity.
We want to thank everyone who supports this movement and of course encourage everyone to take this seriously. Don’t play it down – early and regular check ups play a vital role and it is up to everyone of us to make an effort.
Gray Wolf
Last week, we officially announced the Gray Wolf and we are humbled by your feedback so far. It feels like we made the right decision to go for this amazing animal and we are closely observing any feedback. So don’t hold back and let us know what you think, hope for and more!
Last time we shared work-in-progress screenshots and this week it is time for some moving images! Still taken from early development, we were able to steal a short video from Morris and Moe showcasing animations. Let us know what you think!
Updates
As we move on with increasing momentum on the Wolf, it might get a bit quieter in the next weeks when it comes to updates. Of course we are still monitoring data, your feedback and more and will jump on issues as we identify them. Here is a reiteration of yesterday’s game update with a sneaky addition (we are working on increasing the amount of possible clues on Timbergold Trails) and of course we are looking into a solution for equipment that was placed beyond the recently updated borders on Timbergold Trails.
Bug fixes
* Fix for pink texture error and crash near the reserve borders on Timbergold Trails * Fix for Bighorn sheep odd animations on very steep mountains * Fix for rare crash that can happen on client connection on certain reserves * Issues with patching system that caused infinite download loop * Crashes while patching to a newer launcher version * Disabled the Halloween version of the Elk * Disabled spook an animal contextual help
In progress:
* Shooting Ranges preparing to open * Increased amount of possible clues on Timbergold Trails There are more (way more) things in progress but here we only state what is close to completion within the next week(s)
Misc.
* Localization update
That’s it!
All the best from theHunter team and a snowy Stockholm!
* Fix for pink texture error and crash near the reserve borders on Timbergold Trails * Fix for Bighorn sheep odd animations on very steep mountains * Fix for rare crash that can happen on client connection on certain reserves * Issues with patching system that caused infinite download loop * Crashes while patching to a newer launcher version * Disabled the Halloween version of the Elk * Disabled spook an animal contextual help
In progress:
* Shooting Ranges preparing to open There are more (way more) things in progress but here we only state what is close to completion within the next week(s)
this week’s status update is brought to you by Phil – who is not on vacation in Thailand, slurping drinks in the sun – but all the happier to write these words.
Let’s get right to it.
Timbergold Trails
It has been one week since the release of Timbergold Trails and we are thrilled about all the feedback that you left us. It makes us very happy that you enjoy the new reserve, animals and shared your feedback about the positive and of course the negative stuff as well.
We continue our work on fixing the initial problems of the patching system, border crashes and more and improved on the failed patch this Wednesday.
It will undergo more testing and will hopefully be ready for next week.
Timbergreywolf
Slightly tricky but all the more enjoyable from our end was the announcement of the next species in the EHR and it is finally happening. After seven years, theHunter will bring Grey Wolves into the game.
We will gradually share more news about this milestone in the upcoming weeks and like you to meet first screenshots, which is taken from early development.
Work in Progress Grey Wolf
Early Development
Timberhalloween
It seems that the last patch brought even more uninvited guests than anticipated! Honoring the yearly tradition, you can find a new beast variant of an animal in the game – at your own risk – next to spooky sales in the store and a mission to win a unique trophy!
Happy Halloween!
Timbercontextual Help
With Wednesday’s patch, we also introduced a new feature called Contextual Help.
Our aim is to help the newest of players to learn the ropes of theHunter. As many of you know, it takes quite some time to understand and get good at this game. While we have an excellent, community-driven wiki, many video and text tutorials and divine support from all the experienced hunters on the forum, it can still be difficult to grasp what to do during your first hunts. Enter the contextual help system which will give you hints based on what you do. We have added the first hint, which tells player that running will spook animals.
More hints will follow in the future and as always, we would love to hear what you think about this.
Hint: You can turn off the feature in the launcher game settings and we will add a function to en / disable it from within the in-game settings as well.
(Thanks to killertut for reminding us about this 🙂 )
Timberupdates
And finally, to keep you in the loop, here is a selection of what is currently in progress on our end.
This list does not include everything as we don’t want to promise things that we can’t deliver (and this still counts for this list as well) but we want to reassure that we are continuing to work on your feedback.
Fixed:
Increased the chance of bighorn sheeps to start fighting which will increase the amount of clues on your HunterMate.
In Progress:
Infinite patching loop in launcher
Crash when updating from older versions of the launcher to current one
Pink textures and crash close to borders
Animals crossing the borders out of the reserve
Tweaking populations for how many animals you will encounter in the Timbergold Trails
That’s it!
All the best from a sickness struck theHunter team and have a great hunt out there!
* New contextual help system (more on that in tomorrow’s status update – but do check your launcher game settings for a checkbox on “Contextual Help”)
Bug fixes
* Fix for pink texture error and crash near the reserve borders * Improved pathfinding * Fix to missing collision on some lodge’s tables * Fix that some trees had too big collision * Fix collision on some small tree that prevent player to walk through them
In progress:
* Bighorn sheep can have odd animations on very steep mountains * Shooting Ranges preparing to open * Bighorn sheep call is not triggered frequently enough * Rare crash can happen on client connection in certain reserve * Issues with patching system that caused infinite download (tried to patch this today but without success – we will try again soon this time with success!) * Crashes while patching to a newer launcher version (tried to patch this today but without success – we will try again soon this time with success!)
The wait is over, the 11th of the Evergreen Hunting Reserves, Timbergold Trails, inspired by the stunning Rocky Mountains, is here and should be downloading onto your PC as we speak.
A couple of quick points before you delve into this glorious fall environment.
There are five species currently residing in Timbergold Trails – Mule Deer, Grizzly Bear, White-tailed Ptarmigan, Bighorn Sheep and Rocky Mountain Elk. All five species will be on free species rotation until next Thursday, October 27th.
There are a currently some known issues with the reserve (you can find the detailed list in “In Progress” part of the Game Update). We will continue working on those as well as polishing and tweaking the reserve, we are planning to release a patch as soon as possible. So, if you encounter any rough edges, please don’t sweat it, just report them in the forum and we will jump on them!
We are running a promotion campaign until Monday, October 24th, during which time you will get Deployable Hunting Towers when buying 2000, 3000 and 5000 em$ – 1, 2 and 3 towers respectively. Hopefully they will come in handy in the vast wilderness of Timbergold Trails!
Just a short update from us this week since it’s all hands on deck here in the studio as we near completion of the eleventh reserve of the EHR!
Rocky Mountain Elk
Meet the next new inhabitant of Timbergold Trails, the upcoming Rocky Mountain inspired reserve. The majestic Rocky Mountain Elk. All screenshots are work in progress and actual models may be subject to change prior to release.
Compound Showdown 2016
The results are in and it’s official, team Pulsar took the win. Well done and thank you to everyone who participated, regardless of which team you joined. The prizes and trophies have now all been awarded. We hope you enjoyed the event!
Pre-release livestreams
You’ll soon get an opportunity to see Timbergold Trails with your own eyes. As tradition dictates, we’ve planned a series of pre-release livestreams. Once again, with the help of hunters from our wonderful international community, we’re able to offer the livestreams in three languages – English, German, Spanish and Italian! Here’s the video announcement of the English livestream, and below, you can find the dates, times and details of the streams in other languages.
There will be no Lock&Learn session this week, since Johanna is tied up with preparations for the upcoming Timbergold Trails pre-release livestreams. Normal Lock&Learn schedule will resume next week.
Holidays
I’m heading off on holiday from the middle of next week, so for the next 3 weeks it will be Philipp and Johanna that will keep you updated. I apologise in advance, but will not be able to respond to private messages or forum posts during this time
That’s it from us this week. We hope to see you all on the livestreams. Happy hunting!
As our new reserve with all its residents slowly but surely reaches completion, we’ve been having long discussions about a name that would do proper justice to its shimmering beauty. I’ve gone through all of your suggestions, numerous times, and presented a dozen of the best ones to the rest of the team. In the end, we settled on Timbergold Trails. We thought that it nicely represented the colours and the “wooden” look and feel of the new reserve, had a nice melody to it and fit well with the rest of our location names. Congratulations to Raphael202, who suggested “timbergold pass” which we also liked, but later decided that Trails has a nice alliteration with Timbergold plus we do have oodles of trails in the new reserve. As a thank you for this suggestion, Raphael202 will receive the honourary Contributor membership status, together with the coveted Almost DEV jacket, as well as a store item of their choice (please contact me via forum PM to claim your reward).
The art team is now working on the reserve emblem, which will be revealed later, but here is a question for you. What do you think it will show?
The lady is ready!
Today we are finally, finally thrilled and psyched to show you the gem of Timbergold Trails (well, at least in my humble opinion). The beautiful bighorn sheep. Mattias has at last battled their horns and made these sneak peek screenshots for you to enjoy. Oh boy, I can’t wait!
Ask Us Anything
Thank you everyone who submitted their questions on the Ask Us Anything thread. We’ll go through them and reply to whatever we can in the upcoming weeks. The engagement on this one was great, as always, thanks for staying so interested in the nitty-gritty of your (and our) favourite game and keeping us on our toes!
Compound Showdown competitions
The second stage of our Compound Showdown event – competitions – started yesterday, so it’s time to grab that compound bow of choice once again and defend your team’s honour. The competitions are pretty hard-core, as no callers, scents or platforms are allowed, so a lot of hunting skills and patience will be put to test. The last gift from our game designer Daniel to all of you who appreciate true hunting challenges 😉
My Hunting Shop update
The My Hunting Shop competition ended last week and the beautiful Beretta backpack is already on its way to the winner – dools24, who must be one happy Aussie right now. You can find the final leaderboard here.
Our partners My Hunting Shop have also kindly offered a 10% discount for all our players. You can claim it with the code TheHunter2016 on their site. Please note that the code applies to purchases between 100 and 600 Euro and is only valid until December 20th within Europe.
The Stallion in the Store
Finally, if you missed it yesterday, The Stallion, the premium version of our powerful .45 Long Colt Revolver is finally available in the store. Go check it out.
First of all, be sure that you pick your bow team in our Compound Showdown event that started yesterday. You have until October 5th to complete one of the qualifying missions, get a lovely trophy and a ticket that will guarantee you entry to the competition phase which starts next week. When it’s over, we’ll finally be able to put an end to the constant fighting about which compound bow is better; Snakebite, Parker Python or Pulsar. All the compound bows, except the two new variations of Pulsar, are on sale throughout the whole event.
Rockies
The testing phase of our Rockies-inspired reserve is in full bloom, and today we’re ready to show you yet another upcoming resident. The Grizzly Bear, rwah! Please note that these screens are work in progress, and the fur textures will look different in the game.
Here’s the last call if want to make a suggestion for a name for the reserve. Submit your entry in this thread before the end of the day today CEST, then the thread will be closed and we will set out on the fun quest of picking the best of the names.
The Team
Finally, you’ve probably noticed that our team has changed quite significantly over the last year. You can find almost all of our current devs (except for our Customer Service Manager David Lucas) in the best of their looks on this picture (click to enlarge):
(top row, from left to right)
Patrik Andersson – Client Programmer
Morris Belfrage – Animator
Johanna Schramm – Marketing Coordinator
Magnus Eckers – Frontend Developer
Kristoffer Begman – Tools Developer
Emil Bjurström – Backend Programmer
Robin Andersson – Client Programmer
Calle Gustafsson (behind the skull) – Backend Programmer
Gregoire Iwaniec – Sound Designer
Alena Rybik – Community manager
Dennis Borg – QA manager
Sacha Karsenty – User Acquisition Manager
Ami Jansson – 3D Artist
(bottom row, from left to right)
Moe Awira – Animator
Roberto Mangiafico – Lead Client Programmer
Philipp Strecker – Producer
Carl-Oscar Löhn – Client programmer
Mattias Nordin – 3D Artist
Marcus Tuomi – 3D artist
Ask Us Anything
And for you to get to know the team a bit better, we’ve decided to do another Ask Us Anything! I’m sure some of you have had quite a few questions sitting in your heads that you would like to ask different members of theHunter devs team, so here’s your chance. You can direct your questions to the whole team or specify which developer you’d like to reply and I’ll do my best to coordinate the team’s response efforts by relaying the questions to right people.
The AUA thread will be open from now on until Monday, October 3rd 2016 12:00 CEST. All questions will be moderated and supervised by myself and the moderation team. I’ll do my best to get you the answers to your questions by within a week of the AUA session closing.
No tech support and bugs related questions, as these usually require a thorough personal investigation and we have specific channels for those type of queries (customer support and Bug Reports forum)
Try to avoid opinionated questions, eg. ”Why does the new gun suck?”
Do not repost your question multiple times
All questions may be asked, but not all questions may be answered, although we’ll do my best to reply to everything we can. If I the answer is unknown or can’t be revealed, I’ll let you know. Questions will be answered not necessarily in the order in which they’re posted.
The magnificent environment of our 11th reserve is almost complete. It’s the polishing that’s left, and for our art, animation and programming crafts it’s all hands on deck working on the species. My hope was to share with you a couple of screenshots of the Bighorn Sheep today, however it looks like we’re running into some problems with the horns of those ladies, so I’ll have to keep you hungry with these lovely Whitetailed Ptarmigans and will hopefully show you more wonderful beasts next week!
We’re still collecting suggestions for the reserve name here. Please’ share your best ideas!
Heavy Recurve Bow by InstinctiveArcher
On Wednesday we released a new bow, inspired by the real life creation built by our community member InstinctiveArcher. We are super proud and honoured to have it featured in the game and we really hope to have more community content of this calibre in the future. Apropos the bow, and especially for you competition junkies: if you’ve tried it out already. you probably noticed that it’s slightly more powerful than other two Recurve Bows. Based on this, we were contemplating not allowing it for the same competitions, but instead creating a separate category for it. We are interested to hear whether you think this is a reasonable and fair decision, and we look forward to your feedback on that 🙂
Game Patch
With our game patch yesterday we also released changes to the Ptarmigan behaviour and pop-ups for missing licenses that we thought could benefit from more in-depth explanation, so I asked our producer Philipp to share some insights and details on those changes:
Ptarmigans’ behaviour change:
The new behaviour of our beloved little ptarmigans is somewhat of a small game development dream come true to me, so I want to share a bit of backstory for it.
Some weeks ago, our client programmer Patrik was working on the fleeing behaviour of the Ptarmigan as they started hiding on the ground too early or had a couple of problems when flying away. Being the thorough programmer that he is, he dove deeper into the code.
Together with Carl-Oscar he discussed his findings and it created an urge in them to get more out of the untapped potential of the flying bird with the hilarious call. They teamed up to become an unstoppable force of pitching their ideas first to Daniel (he will never be forgotten) and then to the rest of the team. Everybody agreed that what they wanted to do were great additions, so estimations were made and the work began.
Naturally, it took longer than anticipated but yesterday the new behaviour was finally released. What rubbed Patrik and Carl-Oscar the wrong way was that spooking a group of lifelong Ptarmigan friends shatters the relationship among them so profoundly that they never want to meet up ever again. So, they changed it.
Ptarmigans will now reunite with their flock after being spooked, giving their behaviour a more realistic touch and hopefully create some heart-warming reunions. The other thing that bothered them about the well-being of a Ptarmigan is their ability to find food. The poor birds stroll around the same area where they spawn which makes survival quite tough. So, they changed that too.
As a flock, Ptarmigans will now migrate to different areas in different time intervals. This is especially impressive if you are caught off guard and see the flock taking off and flying. We thoroughly enjoyed testing it and getting in a new element of immersion. Personally, I like this story so much because it’s a great example of the passion and dedication of the team. We are not a big team but what we don’t have in numbers we make up for with heart and seeing two programmers researching real life Ptarmigan behaviours and pitching their ideas to the team makes working on this game even more enjoyable.
Missing License Pop Ups:
Another addition from yesterday’s update is a new notification pop-up for missing licenses. We received feedback regarding the previous system on the forums and it resonated with us as a lot of new players don’t receive the help they need to understand the license system.
Thus, Robin worked on a new system that informs you if you are missing the licenses for an animal that you picked up a clue for, spotted or want to shoot. There is a trade off in control, as you have to confirm the pop up but we hope that the current rules don’t make it too intrusive. There is a cool down system so you should only receive one pop-up per species every 5 minutes.
We hope this offers better balance between informing players and maintaining immersion. On a side note, it is possible to alt-tab out of the game, buy a license and continue the ongoing session. The bought license will kick in immediately.
Let us know what you think!
Finally, a new team member is here! Since our animation wizard Dick (you should know him by the brilliant scent hound animations) is currently on parental leave, we needed some more animation force to keep Morris company, and so Moe came on board. Read his info below and say hello in the forums.
Meet Moe
Hello everyone!
My name is Moe Awira and I just moved to Sweden & joined theHunter team as an Animator!
A little about myself, I’m originally from Aleppo city in Syria. I became fascinated with animation when I was 5 years old after I watched Disney’s A Bug’s Life! It was magical to see cartoon characters move and behave like they’re alive and make you sympathize with them!
In 2005 I got my first computer and started playing PC games and teaching myself animation after school using Flash! In 2010 I got my first full-time job as Animator at an animation studio in Amman city in Jordan. Afterwards I worked at several games and animation films in Jordan and Turkey.
Outside of work I enjoy playing games, watching movies, cycling, hiking and camping!
I’m glad to join this awesome team & looking forward to animating my first animal in theHunter!
