Status Update

Posted on September 25, 2014 by admin

Hey all good hunters,

Val-des-Bois is released!

Amazing news – our new reserve Val-des-Bois is finally released! It is the 8th of the Evergreen Hunting Reserves with the total combined area of approximately 75 km² – pretty mind blowing, huh? The new reserve comes with a whole bunch of breathtaking views and unconquerable peaks for you to master. We know that there are a lot of questions and speculations going on about how exactly climbing works, so Björn put together some notes for you explaining all the ins and outs of the new feature, make sure to read them before challenging those ridges. During the preparation for the pre-release live stream, our community member HooCairs has also made a short video showing how climbing and fall damage works:

Free roe hunt until the end of the week

We want all our players, both members and guests, to get the feel and thrill of hunting in the new reserve, so we’re kicking off the release of Val-des-Bois with a free roe deer hunt which will last up till Sunday midnight. No memberships or licenses will be required and .243 Bolt Action Rifle is permitted for roes.

Alpine Ibex hunting tips

The biggest hit of Val-des-Bois is of course the new species, the Alpine ibex. Hunting Alpine Ibex will perhaps be the most difficult hunting in theHunter so far. They are wary and quiet animals who blend in well in their native Alpine environment. The Alpine Ibex do not call like other species in the game, for this reason there are no callers available, which makes it one of the species that require pure “spot and stalk” style of hunting. It is possible to get audio clues from the Ibex but these are sparse (and are never calls). To make things even more complicated, the Alpine Ibex are skilful climbers. They can climb almost vertical cliff faces with ease, so going after them will require a great deal of knowledge of the area: some steep surfaces may be possible for you to climb, others will lead to a quick drop down to harm. Wise hunters always bring a first aid kit along when hunting Ibex in Val-des-Bois. It will be tempting to fire at an Alpine Ibex high up on a mountain wall but it may have unfortunate consequences: there is a risk that the animal will get stuck where you can not reach it to harvest. When hunting Alpine Ibex, there should be a lot of planning going into every shot to avoid losing that great trophy. After all, that is what makes hunting Alpine Ibex worth it: those magnificent horns!

Re-watch the live streams

Many of you have already seen some bits of Val-des-Bois and Ibex hunting during our pre-release livestreams on Monday. Despite some technical problems on our side which caused the delay of the English live stream and for which we apologize, it became a fantastic community event. As many as 3 000 unique viewers, with 650 people simultaneously at the peak time, watched the English live stream! Huge thanks to everyone who helped to organize this event, participated in the chat with their questions and simply watched. For those you who missed it or just want to re-watch it at your own pace, here are the links to the replays in all languages the live stream was offered in:

Personal Bests are back & New languages added

And the last two pieces of news from us for now: today we’re finally bringing back the missed by many Personal Bests feature, which received a complete overhaul. Plus we’ve just added two new languages – Romanian and Hungarian, which means that now theHunter can be played in 19 different languages. Thanks to our awesome translators for their extraordinary job, there is more to come!

Ok, we won’t be holding you any longer, Val-des-Bois is calling! 😉

Happy hunting!

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Game Update

Posted on September 25, 2014 by admin

Features

* Val-des-Bois reserve

* Alpine Ibex

* Climbing – Players can now use climbing gear to scale vertical walls, learn more about it in the release notes

* Fall Damage – Players can now be knocked out from heavy falls, learn more about it in the release notes

Changes

* Localization updated, two new languages are added (Romanian and Hungarian)

* Improved map loading performance

* New personal bests site

Bug fixes

* Improved animal path finding performance

* Fixed consumable item info bug when having same item equipped in two different slots (the amount left showed wrong number)

* You cannot spot animals when you’re hurt

* You can no longer move away from a Tree stand or Tripod by aiming multiple times

* Decreased the frequency of the roe deer warning sound a little

* Dead animals slide a bit less in slopes

* Fixed some missing animations on older items

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Introducing Climbing & Falling in theHunter

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Björn Öjlert

Why climbing?

When we design a new species for the game we strive to add as much unique gameplay around it as possible, preferably inspired by real life characteristics. One of the most distinguishable features of the Alpine Ibex is their ability to scale almost vertical walls and already in the beginning of the research process it became clear that this had to be included in the game to make the species justice.

This, coupled with the fact that Ibex are not known to respond to any lures, puts the hunter at a great disadvantage. Climbing evens the playing field by allowing agile hunters to follow their prey up even the most difficult slopes while adding an all new type of outdoor experience to the world of theHunter.

Do I have to climb?

Climbing is as much a requirement for hunting Ibex as lures are generally for other species. In other words, it makes it easier but it is not required. Most of the reserve, including the high areas where Ibex roam, can be reached by walking and climbing should be viewed more as taking a shortcut than a requirement.

How Is It Done?

Climbing Gear Characteristics:

Creates permanent climbing paths
Rated for 2 safe falls per climbing season
75% of deployed units are recovered on dismantle

How to deploy:

Add a couple of Climbing Gear to your field inventory
Find a suitable rock wall, look for extruding stones in vertical cliff areas
Equip your Climbing Gear & click the Use Item Button (Left Mouse) to deploy
Note that deployment cost is dependent on wall with taller walls costing more units

How to climb:

Walk up to your deployed climbing path & hold the Use Environment button (E) for options
Select “Enter”
Use the Move Forward & Move Backward buttons (W/S) to move up or down
When you see a balance bar use Move Left & Move Right (A/D) to keep the balance arrow centered
If the arrow go too far to any edge of the bar you will fall, the first couple of falls in each climbing season are recovered by the rope but eventually the rope breaks which lead to a fatal disagreement with gravity. Note that falling and breaking the rope does not affect the wall. Climbing gear can only be lost through dismantle
Once at the other end of the wall press the Use Environment button (E) to exit

How to dismantle:

Walk up to your deployed climbing path & hold the Use Environment button (E) for options
Select “Dismantle”
Note that only 75% of deployed climbing gear are recovered on dismantle due to wear & tear

Is there a reserve limit for deployed climbing paths?

The amount of climbing paths that can be deployed in a reserve is only limited by the amount of available deployment spots which in Val-Des-Bois is about 20.

Fall Damage

In addition to climbing we’ve added another new feature requested by many players for a very long time. Basically it is about addressing the immersion breaking superman ability of the hunter to survive falls from any height without any of the bone breaking consequences one would expect from such an event in real life. While this has worked well in most areas of the old reserves, simply due to the lack of places to fall from, it became more of an issue in a mountainous reserve such as Val-Des-Bois.

Unlike climbing, this will affect gameplay in both the new and old reserves, however, as mentioned above, there are not that many places to fall from in the old reserves except extreme areas such as the hangbridge ravine on Logger’s Point.

Being knocked out from falling follows by the same procedure as similar features such as animal attacks. Once knocked out you can choose to use a First Aid Kit to respawn at the spot or respawn at a Tent or Campsite.

Tips

Mastering the balance act of climbing can take a few tries. It’s recommended to bring a couple of medkits or place a tent near your practice wall for quick respawns.
Be easy on the keys when balancing, holding too long can tip the scale over to the other side and lead to acceleration towards epic disaster
While you need to focus on the balance bar while climbing don’t forget to check for the “exit wall” icon in the right corner of the screen as you approach your destination

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Status Update

Posted on September 18, 2014 by admin

Hey hunters,

Today the status update is almost completely dedicated to Val-des-Bois, as the release is just around the corner. There has been a lot of speculation as to what animals will populate the new Alpine terrain, and it’s about time we satisfy your curiosity. Alongside our long-time residents Red Deer, Red Fox, Roe Deer and Brown Bear, we’ll be welcoming the Alpine Ibex – the 20th species in theHunter’s species family and the fifth animal of Val-des-Bois. Ibex are known as amazing climbers, so you’ll find them on high plateaus of Val-des-Bois. If lucky, you can even see a couple of high-tempered bucks clashing horns here and there.

Here are some screenshots of the new somnolent-eyed animal (click on pictures to open them in full resolution):

The ibex is also featured on the emblem of the new reserve, here it is:

To solace your waiting for the release of the new reserve and give you a chance to have a look at all the beauty it hides, we’re arranging pre-release community livestreams of Val-des-Bois. The streamed hunts will take place on our beta server, so some things will still be WIP, but hopefully you’ll be able to get the feel. The stream will be offered in four languages: English, German, French and Brazilian Portuguese and will be organized completely by our community members.

For more information check the dates and times for all streams below and watch this awesome announcement video by our community member Pratze, who will be streaming the English and German hunts:

Times and dates of the pre-release livestreams:

English: Monday, 22nd at 18:00 CEST
Streamed by Pratze, joined by TOD1D and caledonianblues
You can watch it on this channel

German: Monday, 22nd at 21:00 CEST
Streamed by Pratze, joined by HooCairs and Killertut
You can watch it on this channel

French: Monday, 22nd at 21:00 CEST
Streamed by Aruvyel, joined by Vinivici
You can watch it on this channel

Brazilian Portuguese (will be available as a pre-recorded video): Monday, 22nd at 19:00 BRT
Made by XandyBecas
You can watch it on this channel

Hope you’ll be able to make it to one of the streams!

And for last I’ve saved a mind blowing fact: the total combined distance theHunter players have walked in EHR, from the creation of the game until today, is astounding 59 116 593 km, which is longer than the minimum distance from the Earth to Mars. That’s some decent walking there hunters, keep on hiking! 😉

Happy hunting!

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Status Update

Posted on September 11, 2014 by admin

Howdy hunters,

Welcome to our weekly status update. Things in the office are going well, Calle has been settling in and has already started to dig into the much missed Personal Bests feature. Hopefully he’ll be able to find a better way to implement this functionality and bring it back to us soon.

Thank you for the feedback

Thank you everyone who have completed our feature survey, there were some interesting insights and we’ll be working on implementing them into our future roadmap. As promised, we randomly picked three respondents from all people who have replied to the survey and added 1000em$ to their accounts. Here is the lucky trio: Cashet, Jeff1963, restor104. Congratulations!

We went through all the feedback on our offerwall (”Earn em$”) you’ve shared both in the survey and dedicated forum thread, and right now we are working together with our offerwall partners on streamlining the offers, to make the ”Earn em$” feature more reliable and user-friendly.

The new reserve has got its name

Thanks for all the name suggestions you’ve shared on 20 forum pages, some of them were really brilliant. We went through all of them and in the end settled on this gem we really liked: Val-des-Bois. It is pronounced /val-de-bwah/ and, loosely translated from French, means ”a wood valley”. We thought that both the melody and the meaning suit the new reserve and other EHR names very nicely. Our special thanks and appreciation goes to the player named Haldur who has suggested this beautiful idea: congratulations, your name has now been recorded in the chronicles of theHunter 😉

The secrets of Val-des-Bois

As you might remember, we’ve mentioned that the new reserve will come with a couple of surprises. For starters, there of course will be a new animal living there, more on this in our next status update, but feel free to place your bets. Another surprise and a totally different game design feature was dictated by the mountain nature of the new reserve, and namely, to access certain particularly steep areas in Val-des-Bois you’ll have to climb! The ability to climb will come with special gear and some hazards, naturally associated with this kind of activity. More details will come later, for now here is the sneak preview of the climbing with Robin testing the new mode and animations (please note that this is still very much work in progress):

Deployable hunting tower

Today we released a new item – a deployable hunting tower which has been a popular community request. The hunting tower is different from the majority of our items in that you can not buy it in the store. These towers can only be obtained (for free) when buying selected types of memberships and membership bundles. The good news is that all existing members holding 6 or 12-month memberships, purchased via our website and Steam, got their first hunting tower automatically for free. For more details please check today’s game update and the item description.

See you next week,

Happy hunting!

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Game Update

Posted on September 11, 2014 by admin

Features

* Deployable Hunting Tower

The deployable hunting tower is an exclusive item with which we intend to provide an additional bonus to some of our memberships at no extra cost for members. The hunting tower can only be acquired through the purchase of selected memberships and membership bundles (when buying a 6-month-membership or a Pathfinder bundle you’ll get 1 tower, when buying a 12-month-membership or a Trailrunner bundle you’ll get 3). If you have an active 6- or 12-month membership at the moment of the release, you’ll receive 1 hunting tower in your inventory. This exclusive membership item only applies to new and existing memberships purchased via our website or Steam, not retail boxes.

Changes

* Updated localization

* Turkey Decoy icons have been added to the HunterMate map

* Turkeys now have lungs and heart – Fix for the turkey issue which appeared after the ballistics update for arrows, when it became no longer practical to instantly kill Turkey with a bow (unless you hit the head or neck which is really hard at the required range). If Turkey doesn’t die immediately, it would enter a flee mode and spook other birds in its vicinity, which made obsolete the “silent massacre strategy” that many players have come to love.

With the introduction of lungs and heart, penetration of either one of these organs leads to instant death which should allow for the massacre to be revived, although with an added skill requirement, as you now need to hit the chest area of the Turkey for it to be effective. However, it’s important to note that since the internal organs of a RL Turkey present a very small target area we have chosen to super-size these in the game for gameplay reasons.

Bug fixes

* Fix for reindeer migration randomness when choosing migration target
* Fix for waterfowls randomness when choosing a target to fly to
* You now get a message saying you are not allowed to shoot animals from a target range. (Animals shot from a target range do not take damage)
* Fix for reindeer rattler caller only attracting males (they did attract females before)
* Fix for reindeer scoring when spotting the animal (removed score cap at 555)

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Game Update

Posted on September 4, 2014 by admin

Changes

* Arrows are now less affected by wind. Note that there is still a notable effect during bad weather conditions (rain / overcast) but offset is now decimeters rather than meters at normal shooting distances (< 40 m). To increase your chances during these conditions it’s advisable to avoid shooting in crosswind, especially if using a low velocity bow such as a longbow / recurve which are more affected by wind than compounds & crossbows.

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Status Update

Posted on September 4, 2014 by admin

Hey hunters,

Summer is officially over, so is the Summer Fiesta event. The participation and feedback were amazing, great! The most challenging bonus mission was completed by as many as 140 hunters, who have become the proud holders of the diamond stag trophy. Well done everyone, more events to come!

It looks like you have been enjoying hunting the reindeer. Our apologies for the small hiccups right after the reindeer release that were causing game crashes for some players. Hopefully it didn’t spoil the reindeer experience too much.

The work on the new, yet nameless, reserve continues as we approach the final stage. Speaking of the name, we have received tons of excellent suggestions and the team is having a hard time picking the best and most suitable one, plus all of us each have our own favourites. This means you still have time to submit your name suggestion if you have a one in a million idea.

Huge thanks to everyone who filled in our survey. Your input is invaluable. If you haven’t found 5 minutes to do it yet – you have a couple of days left to do it and take part in our em$ draw before the survey closes on September 7th.

Today we released a premium version of the popular .308 revolver with the nostalgic name ”Highwayman”. Check it out, it looks like a piece of art.

From good to great news; today we’re happy to introduce our new team member Calle who has just joined our backend team and will be working together with Emil on the code behind theHunter web. Read his intro and give him a proper welcome!

Hi there,

My name is Calle and I’ve just joined Expansive World, where I will work on our backend systems.

I’m originally from a tiny village on the eastern border of Sweden, between Småland and Östergötland, called Skeppsgården. I moved to Stockholm when I was 16 to study multimedia with the vision of becoming a game developer. As it turned out, the school was more about motion graphics, 3D design and the web. I tried all of them but got stuck with web development as that was the most “programmy” option.

Since then I worked as a web developer for a couple of years, studied at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, worked with ‘Smart-TV’ systems and only now, after 17 years, I’m finally in the business I aimed for when I was a pimply teenager.

I usually spend my free time with my girlfriend, my friends and my family. I’m into GeoCaching, watching TV-series and brewing beer.

Calle has already had his induction by fire into theHunter team, or to be more precise, induction by yellow paint balls. Yesterday our team went playing paintball to the woods of Stockholm, and here is a little photo report for you of this fun but quite happening.

See you in the woods, happy hunting!

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Status Update

Posted on August 28, 2014 by admin

Hi hunters, it’s status update time!

Reindeer is here

As we announced in the game update, the herd of reindeer is now migrating through Hemmeldal, shaking their majestic antlers all over the area.

Here are some gameplay notes for you to keep in mind: The herd is broken up into smaller groups which cross over the borders, move across the reserve and cross the border again, leaving Hemmeldal. The game mechanic is similar to that of the waterfowl. If a reindeer is injured, the migratory behaviour gets cancelled to prevent it from being out of reach of the hunter.

Hunting reindeer is different from other deer species. They are always on the move, stopping only to feed. This will make spotting and stalking easier if players cooperate: by helping each other, players can pinpoint the reindeer and relay the information to other players who can get ready to give the animal a warm welcome.

Reindeer also are less attracted by callers. However, using an antler rattle will attract males looking for trouble.

New reserve sneak preview

The new Alpine reserve is slowly emerging and today we’re ready to share some screenshots with you. Please bear in mind that the work is ongoing, and some things are subject to change.

Once again, we’d like to ask for your ideas and inspiration when it comes to naming the new reserve. It has become a great theHunter tradition to come up with reserves’ names with the collaborative help of the community (Hirschfelden was initially a suggestion by community member MonacoSteve and Rougarou Bayou was brought up by player Mills), and we’re happy to continue with it. Your name suggestions must reflect the soul and nature of the new reserve as well as fit nicely all the other geographical names in the EHR. Your suggestions are very welcome in this thread.

User survey

It’s been a while since we ran a player survey, and with all new players having joined us following the Steam launch, we thought it’s time to do it again. As usual, we’re asking for your help to set priorities for the future development of the game, but please do not make assumptions of the future content and features, based solely on the fact that they were mentioned in the survey.

The survey is up and running and will be open until September 7th midnight CEST. You can only participate once. You can choose to remain anonymous or fill in your theHunter name, in the latter case you will automatically take part in our em$ draw, during which we will randomly choose three players who have completed the survey and will add 1000 em$ to their accounts. Please note that even if you let us know your name, the information you provide will not be stored with your account details, shared, sold, distributed or used in any other way that may harm you.

Complete the survey

Happy reindeer hunting!

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Game Update

Posted on August 28, 2014 by admin

Features

* Reindeer added

* Reindeer rattler caller added

Changes

* Players are not allowed to fire at animals that are outside of the reserve

* Not possible to take a picture (mirror cam, trophy shot, camera) while the game is uploading another picture to the server

* More realistic visual arrow penetration on animals – the penetration depth of the arrow model is now affected by penetration calculations

* More realistic penetration & damage settings for all arrows & birdshot

* Decreased penetration & increased damage on all revolvers to better reflect hollowpoint characteristics

* Updated localization

Bug fixes

* Female turkeys don’t respond to the turkey owl caller.

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