Welcome to our weekly status update. The open beta has been ongoing for over a week now and due to the great results we’ve decided to continue it for another day. Great job everyone, thanks to your input and efforts we’ve made some good progress.
A lot of the bugs and issues have already been fixed on live, such as spotting and tracking stats not being registered. More fixes will be included in our next patch which will probably be released next week. We continue working on the remaining issues and will keep you updated on our progress. In the meantime, if you are still experiencing the issue with your stats not being registered, please submit a detailed report here.
Now onto the compensation plan for those turbulent times following the release of Whiterime Ridge. We’ve promised everyone a hard hitting gift – it’s going to be “El Bisonte”, a new .454 handgun. It will be released with the next patch and will be added to everyone who logs into the game for free starting from the day it is patched (the exact starting date will be announced next week) until December 20th, irrespective whether affected or not affected by the recent issues. Individual compensation for players who have been experiencing game-breaking problems will be announced and given out once we can be sure that those are fixed.
Our Halloween event is now over and 1050 hunters have successfully fought the blood thirsty beast and got the trophy. The missions are hidden now, but you can still finish the ones you’ve activated.
About 10000 players have completed our survey, which is an absolute record so far, thanks for your time and feedback hunters! There is still 1 day left until the survey closes, so if you haven’t had time to complete it, hurry up and have your say. The winners of our em$ draw will be announced in the next status update.
This week’s status update is coming a bit earlier due to the big event that we’re preparing for you tomorrow. A lot of issues that have been persisting since the release of Whiterime Ridge have proven that we are in need of more versatile testing, involving lots of players, different software and hardware. We are working on optimizing our QA and testing procedures as we speak, in the meantime we’ve listened to your feedback regarding inviting the community for testing and want to offer everyone interested to participate in our 2 day long open beta session. The main objectives of this stress-testing session are to test the fixes and collect data regarding game crashes and other issues introduced after the release of Whiterime Ridge which we are still struggling to find a resolution for, and to test the new waterfowl species (no details on this, just go and find out for yourself ;)). If this is successful we are planning to make such open testing events a regular thing.
Call to open beta testing
The testing will take place on our beta server and will run for 48 hours, starting from tomorrow, November 4th, around 13:00 CET. Please note that you won’t be able to create an account before that.
Players will be able to hunt all animals, regardless of whether they are members or not, and will receive 12,000 em$, some waterfowl equipment and warm clothes for testing purposes.
Please note that items you buy on our beta server with the aforementioned em$ 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.
Download and install the beta game client from Downloads.
Hunt. We would like to ask you to pay special attention to waterfowl hunting (on Rougarou Bayou and Hirschfelden) as well as Whiterime Ridge.
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.
Tell us what you think
Today we’re launching a new player survey to gather your feedback on Whiterime Ridge and some other stuff, it shouldn’t take you more than 10 minutes. It will be open until 13th November noon and we’ll randomly pick 3 people who will receive 1000 em$ from us (don’t forget to add your theHunter name in you want to participate in the draw).
Movember started yesterday with 4 new moustaches in the store and we’ve already sold 563! This is great, thank you for your activity for this good cause. This year we are expanding our Movember event with a personal challenge in which our devs will join the global Movember community in growing their moustaches for one month to raise awareness of men’s health. You can track their progress here and you of course are very welcome to join them!
I want to begin with an update regarding the game crashes and issues which many players are experiencing, most notably those running the game on Windows XP and Vista. Our programmers are working flat out to resolve the matter (which has been given the highest priority) but unfortunately it is proving more difficult than we had hoped. It would really help us if you could provide a detailed game crash report in this thread (please make sure to provide all the details we are asking for in the description). We realise it is not the responsibility of the community to assist in this manner, but our aim is to get the situation under control as fast as possible and your cooperation will assist us in doing so. If you are experiencing any other bugs or issues, we have a bug forum for you to report those. Bugs posted in general threads disappear in the midst of thousands of post very quickly, so we are asking you to follow the bug reporting guidelines to help us find and fix the bugs. Thank you very much for your patience and support!
We want to extend our gratitude for the fact people are sticking with theHunter during these turbulent and frustrating times. To show our appreciation we will be giving everyone, regardless of whether your game has been impacted or not, a hard-hitting gift, more on this next week. People who were not able to play the game at all will be compensated on an individual basis at a later point, once the problems are fixed.
Once again, thank you for your continued loyalty and patience. We appreciate it very much.
Halloween event
Despite the fact some of you are having troubles with the game, we thought that it would be unfair to deprive the rest of the players of the traditional Halloween event. This year’s event consists of a special mission pack with a unique trophy for those who complete all the missions. The event starts today and will run throughout next week, until November 8th. A special Halloween bundle will also be available during this time. Please note that this event was created and implemented by team members who are not involved, and cannot assist in any way, with bug fixing. Good luck!
Movember 2015
This year we’re repeating last year’s success charity event where we, together with our community, joined the Movember movement. This year we’ll be raising funds for cancer research and awareness for men’s health again. Last year we collected $1776 in donations, let’ see whether we can beat this number this time.
In addition to our last year’s moustaches which will become available again, our artists have created another four funky ones – in styles Walrus (on the picture), the Bat, Artisan and Showstopper. Same as last year, they will cost 300 em$ and we will donate $ 2,- for every moustache purchased in our store during November. You can track our progress by the Movember ticker on the theHunter main page. TheHunter Movember campaign will start on Monday, November 2nd, and will run throughout the whole month
If for some reason you don’t want to buy a moustache but still want to take part in this charity event, here is the link to the Expansive Worlds page on the Movember foundation site, where you can make a donation directly. Money donated via our Movember page will go directly to the foundation.
We start by looking back to the latest highlight, Whiterime Ridge. The addition of the latest hunting reserve has been a success and well received by players, especially those who were waiting to hunt Bison and the like in cold and solitary lands. In numbers, there have been more than 175.000 hunts in Whiterime Ridge since its release. This translates to over 200.000 harvested Bison, 89.000 Sitka Deer, 37.000 Snowshoe Hare and 19.000 Arctic Fox. That is some pretty good hunting, keep it up!
Although the new reserve has been loved and well received since its release, the game has been plagued with subsequent issues, leaving some of you unable to play theHunter at all. This is unacceptable and it’s all hands on deck to fix bugs/issues. Some are more complicated than others so bear with us as we sort it out. Full steam ahead.
Our producer Hannes wants to address this situation as well:
“Everybody who is affected by these issues will be compensated. Before we can roll out the compensations, we have to fix the issues, get the final picture of the severity as well as the details of the ones affected. We are on it.”
Today we have released a second patch with fixes and added tools to collect data on complex issues.
Completed fixes:
The Sitka deer now calls audible and correctly
Ground haze effect disabled while looking in binoculars and weapon scopes to improve performance
Issues related to bait *see below
Leaderboards no longer disappear randomly, clicking scores and player names to get to the correct pages
Fixed player cold faint sync between clients when ragdoll
Lightning issues: lowered specular intensity on models and terrain
In progress:
Improve patch download speed
Multiplayer connectivity issues
Major server stability improvements
Added additional logging information to pinpoint complex issues with game server communication
Bear barrels and hog feeders:
The issue causing bear barrels and hog feeders to show an incorrect number in the launcher and in the web has finally been fixed. There was no bait lost as a result of this bug, however, it had a negative impact on gameplay for many bear and pig hunters, so here is the compensation we are offering. Everyone who will visit www.thehunter.com and log in to the game starting from this Friday, October 23th until November 5th, will receive 1000 units of bear bait and 1000 units of hog bait for free.
New object: The Happy Camper Heated Tent
For the ones who want to stick to their beloved outfit in the cold of Whiterime Ridge and sometimes take it too far (or the ones who go for a too refreshing swim), there is something new:
The Happy Camper Heated Tent!
It will allow you to fast travel to tents after succumbing to hypothermia while providing a fresh look as well. Just be sure to do some push ups before carrying it around for long distances. You can find it discounted in the store from today.
Finally, we are thankful and really appreciate the communication with you, theHunter community. You remind us what is important, by praising as well as criticizing alike.
Attention: This is the first patch with fixes. We continue monitoring the performance and working hard on fixing the rest of issues and bugs. After we are confident that the game is stable we’ll come with a suitable compensation plan for everyone affected by the recent crashes and issue. You can expect to hear more on this from us soon. Once again, we are very sorry for all the troubles.
Cheers, Hannes Rhodin theHunter Producer
Bug fixes
* The calling of new animals on Whitetime Ridge fixed (there is still a problem with Sitka)
* Attacking AI fixed for all animals (except bison since it already worked for it)
* Spooking AI fixes (some animals didn’t spook correctly)
* Fixed crash at the start of game
* Fixed random crash when playing the game
* Fix for the bear and hog bait bug
* Achievement page design is fixed
* Not working retail codes are fixed
* Sitka deer images are now correct
* Fix for tracks in the air
* Fix for the weapon wobble
* Fix for ammo not replenishing
* Whiterime Ridge sound improvements
Changes:
* Fix for invisible tracking domes – Now they are brighter on Whiterime Ridge
* New 19th season started. (Due to a database glitch seasons 17 and 18 were very only about 30 minutes long.)
* We’ve also added some code to try to find the issues with the stats being lost on the server
In progress:
* Score estimate for bison in spotting info is not showing the correct value
* FPS drop
* Game crashes with stats not being registered (we implemented some code to collect more data on this)
* Tent functionality broken – it is now possible to fast-travel to tents after being frozen
Complete list of graphics updates and fixes (some of them implemented from Primal):
Fix for broken normals on all tree trunks and some rocks
Fix for broken shadows/lighting on insects, birds, and falling leaves
Fix for incorrect lighting on double-sided materials (foliage, fences, etc.).
Fix for incorrect lighting on hair shader
Shadows are more stable with less flickering and with better filtering
Better quality shadows on grass when using high or very high shadow quality setting
Improved lighting model which helps bringing out detail in shadowed areas
More accurate and detailed lighting of the terrain which will now pick up small scale changes in the geometry.
Fix for the ground haze/dust particles destroying the sun halo.
Some Before and After comparisons
1. Screenshot comparison of a small hill that previously was lit incorrectly:
2. This screenshot shows the results of fixed the ground haze/dust particles destroying the sun halo:
3. This shot shows the higher accuracy of the terrain lighting (the small hill to the right was previously lit incorrectly) as well as the updated lighting model:
4. This shot shows the improved shadowing of the grass for high and very high shadow settings:
5. A comparison that shows how the updated lighting model brings out more surface detail in shadowed areas as seen on the tree trunks:
6. Another comparison that shows how the updated lighting model makes surfaces easier to read in the shadows and helps adding realism:
The wait is over. The tenth Evergreen Hunting Reserve, Whiterime Ridge, is here. With its 5 inhabitants and vast landscape for you to hunt, explore and enjoy!
Following the feedback after the pre-release livestream (you can catch the replay here), we’ve made some changes and applied some fixes, and also updated the ethical weapons list for the bison. You can read all the details in the Whiterime Ridge Release Notes. If you encounter some issues in game, rest assured we are working on ironing out those as soon as possible. (Check the In Progress part of the Game Update).
A couple of short things before you jump into the snowy vastness. With the introduction of 4 new species we are starting a new, 18th season. That means a new chapter and a new opportunity to fight for a position on the leaderboard!
Today we are also introducing some new achievement levels. There will now be an achievement for 1000 harvests of all weapons and species except waterfowl. For waterfowl (geese and mallards) a new achievement for 4000 harvests, and a new total animals achievement for 32000 harvests. Time to wipe the dust off that crossbow you maxed out ages ago and give it some fresh love 😉
For the attention of players with retail boxes who downloaded the game from the DVD – you will have to download the whole game again (the download will be initiated automatically). We apologize for this inconvenience.
Now go explore and make sure to tell us what you think!
PS One more winner of our Hunterscore raffle is lowby – congratulations, the rifle has been added to your account, same is for two other raffle winner, fr_bugs and Shotoenth.
.22 Air Rifle pellet boxes now contain 50 pellets instead of 10
Top achievement level increased – now it’s 1 000 for weapons and species except waterfowl, 4 000 for Canada Goose and Mallard Duck, 32 000 for total harvested animals. Achieve
All in-game sounds for the character have been revamped (such as breathing sounds)
Improved deadzones for Tobii EyeX
Bug fixes
No hands bug has been fixed
Cottontail rabbit and European rabbit deformed face when dead has been fixed
In progress
Random FPS drop, in particular when looking through binoculars
Random lodge sound with birds chirping
Achievement page design tweak for next achievement level
Fif for the Sitka deer image
Fix for the leaderboards
For the attention of players with retail boxes who downloaded the game from the DVD – you will have to download the whole game again (the download will be initiated automatically). We apologize for this inconvenience.
The new reserve is (as you probably already knew) cold. You will need to use the free Arctic clothes (grab your set for free here) or your hunt will be quite short and miserable. Do remember that the clothes you wear will not matter if for any reason you up in the icy waters of Whiterime Ridge. Water will cause your body temperature to drop rapidly and, if you end up in the water, you will need to fast travel to a lodge for some defrosting.
As far as your old clothing go, check the item descriptions in the store for info on how good they are against the cold. Some have no protection, others offer some. Bear in mind that very few of the old pieces of clothing will fully protect you from the savage cold of Whiterime Ridge.
Another thing to bear in mind is that this reserve is huge. Exploring Whiterime Ridge is quite an undertaking. It is a good idea to bring a tent to your first expeditions to make the exploration easier and to find your own perfect hunting spots.
Bison
The Bison is huge, powerful and very grumpy. Hunting it is not the greatest of challenges as it is quite fearless. The real challenge is in shot placement. If you mess up you will have a long tracking session ahead of you. The bison is the heaviest animal in the Evergreen Hunting Reserves and it can take a lot of damage. This is also the reason why some weapons, such as the Longbow and the .50 Cap Muzzleloader, are excluded from the list of permitted weapons. They simply lack the penetration to instantly kill a bison. It might have been all well and good in the time before ethical hunting but not in this day and age.
Snowshoe Hare
This is the prey for the expert hunters! They are small, fast and extremely well camouflaged. They behave much like Cottontail Rabbits but prove more of a challenge due to their excellent camouflaged fur.
Arctic Fox
Here is another challenge! For much of the same reason as with the Snowshoe Hare, the Arctic Fox boasts excellent camo (plus all the elusiveness you should already know from encountering their red sisters in Hemmeldal). That is, as long as you don’t encounter the blue furred variety.
Sitka Deer
The Sitka is much like its close relative, the Blacktail. They have smaller antlers and are a tad more chubby, helping them to cope with the cold weather. Other than that, they go about their business in a similar manner to what you might expect from other deer species in the EHR.
Hope all is well on your side of the globe! Here at EW we are settling in in the new office (more on this below) and adding a final touch to Whiterime Ridge, as it’s almost ready – that close! – for you to set your feet in.
The starting five
As you already know, Bison, Sitka Deer and Snowshoe Hare will be residents of the new reserve. Time to reveal the last two members of the starting five – they are our good ol’ Moose and a new species Arctic Fox.
The Arctic Fox is based on the Red Fox but with nice, silky and – oh my! – so fluffy fur. On the pictures you can see the snow white animal but don’t be surprised when you come across another common variation – blue, which is simply stunning.
Some of you may wonder why Moose and not Caribou was chosen as One of the old guard for the sub-arctic reserve. Well, the reason if the existing Reindeer’s migratory behaviour and the shape of Whiterime Ridge where such gameplay wouldn’t be possible. In order to put Caribou into it, we would have needed to reprogram animal’s AI which would not be feasible at this moment.
Pre-release livestreams
Next week you’ll get a chance to see Whiterime Ridge with your own eyes during our traditional pre-release livestreams. This time, with help of hunters of our international community, we are able to offer it in 5 languages! Here’s the video announcement of the English and German livestreams and below you can find the dates, times and details of streams in other languages.
Hope you’ll be able to make it to one of these snow feasts!
Graphics Update
For the last months we’ve been working on some graphics improvements which will be implemented together with Whiterime Ridge. I’ll write a bigger, more detailed post with release notes later, but here is a sneak peek of just two improvements of many.
This shot shows the higher accuracy of the terrain lighting (the small hill to the right was previously lit incorrectly) as well as the updated lighting model.
This shot shows the improved shadowing of the grass for high and very high shadow settings.
Hunters’ new home – The Night Owl!
Last week, together with our mother company Avalanche Studios, we moved into new shiny headquarters with such a cool name the Night Owl. In case you want to come by and say hello (and you totally should!), our new address is Västgötagatan 5, Stockholm.
To make our office space looks truly theHunter’esque, we of course threw some some stuff around. Here’s a small collage of theHunter artifacts – do you know what they are and what relation they have to EW? The first person who will get all of them correctly (in forum thread replies) will receive something nice 😉
Game issues
Last Friday we experienced a server outage which lasted for about 8 hours and affected the majority of players. As a compensation for this lack of service we’ve added 2 days to all active memberships. You can read a more detailed statement on this here. We are very sorry about this.
And yet another persistent issue that has been plaguing many bear barrels and hog feeders in the last weeks – inconsistent and incorrect bait amount has been being displayed in the launcher and in game. We have been looking into this but were not able to pinpoint the cause of this problem yet. We’re continuing to investigate and after the issue is fixed, we’ll find the way to reimburse you for the lost bait if any.
Raffle winner
The lucky winner of our .45 – 70 Lever Action Rifle raffle is Fr_bugs! He was picked by the script from 2000 hunters who have increased their Hunterscore by 10 in the last week and will receive the rifle at the Whiterime Ridge release.
Now onto the compensation plan for those turbulent times following the release of Whiterime Ridge. We’ve promised everyone a hard hitting gift – it’s going to be “El Bisonte”, a new .454 handgun. It will be released with the next patch and will be added to everyone who logs into the game for free starting from the day it is patched (the exact starting date will be announced next week) until December 20th, irrespective whether affected or not affected by the recent issues. Individual compensation for players who have been experiencing game-breaking problems will be announced and given out once we can be sure that those are fixed.
