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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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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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.
Happy reindeer hunting!
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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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In this status update: news about the EW team, information about the upcoming reserve and the new animal revealed, so read on!
On the hunt for an awesome frontend developer
Sadly, our backend developer Adam and frontend developer Herman have left Expansive Worlds for other adventures, which means that we are short on the web staff at the moment and things might require additional time to get fixed and updated. A new backend developer is already on his way, but we’re still on the lookout for a talented frontend developer to fill in Herman’s shoes. If you know someone who might fit the role, send them our way! Here is the detailed job description.
It’s gonna be mountains!
The work on the new reserve continues and we’re happy to tell you that it’s going to be an Alps inspired reserve. It will feature ample meadows, shady mountains, lavish spruce and a sparkling creek. Once we’re ready, we’ll share more details and some screenshots with you, for now just rest assured that the new reserve will come with a couple of surprises.
You know Dasher and Dancer…
Here comes the most exciting piece – the mysterious new species. Well, not that mysterious, since hundreds of people hit the nail on the head with their guesses. Yes, it’s a reindeer and it’ll come to Hemmeldal. Here are some screenshots of this gorgeous boy for you to savour, please bear in mind that it’s still being tweaked and some minor changes might be added before the actual release.
Sneak peek competition – Winners
We’ve received 280 correct answers to our the competition to guess the animal and reserve. Much more people guessed right, but they didn’t qualify for one or another reason (their guesses were either not submitted in the specified forum thread, or after the deadline, or mentioned only the animal, or made several guesses). We accepted both ”caribou” and ”reindeer” as correct replies, because those are two names for the same species used in different areas of the world. Since Hemmeldal is set on our European inspired continent, we decided to use the local name ”reindeer”. Here are the names of the 10 winners, chosen randomly from 280 people, who will receive a new reindeer rattler caller, a large bottle of scent eliminator and, if applicable, a one-week license to hunt the very same.
If your name in game is different from your forum name please contact Alena.
That’s it from us for today, let us know what you think about the looks of the reindeer in the discussion thread linked to below.
Happy hunting!
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Features
* Face paint (A consumable that works like a Scent Eliminator but lowers visibility rather than scent. Each use lasts 8 in-game hours)
Bug fixes
* Small terrain fix on Red Feather Falls
* Bullpup rifle texture fix (caliber text)
* Clothing textures fix (sometimes players could have wrong texture)
* Logger’s Point bridge fix (players can walk over it once again)
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Hello good hunters,
Here comes our weekly status update. A lot of you have been eagerly waiting for some news about the new species, so I’ll start with that one.
The cat is (almost) out of the bag
Today we’re ready to reveal the first sneak peek of the new animal, so here it is, as seen though the eyes of a short sighted hunter:
By showing you this blurry picture we wanted to prolong the suspense a tiny bit more as well as throw in a small competition. Based on the screenshot above, try to guess what the new animal is and in which reserve it’s going to reside and leave a reply with your guess in the discussion thread to this status update. Only guesses submitted before Sunday, 17th August midnight CEST will be considered. 10 people who have correctly guessed both the animal and the reserve (winners will be chosen randomly) will receive a special prize: a lure for the new animal (not released yet), a large bottle of scent eliminator to better hide from its curiosity, and, in case a winner is a guest, a one-week-license to hunt the very same Mr X.
You can only guess once, people who have submitted several different guesses will be disqualified. The winners, alongside the identity of the new animal, will be announced in the next status update.
Summer Fiesta – Bonus challenge
As promised in our previous status update, today we’re adding an additional ultra-challenging challenge for those of you who have completed all the Fiesta missions (and have been complaining that they were not difficult enough 😉 ). The 6th bonus mission consists of three objectives and can only be activated after you’ve completed 5 ”normal” Fiesta missions. Those who manages to accomplish all three objectives will receive this stunning diamond stag trophy. Worth a try if you ask me.
What you didn’t know about NAOutdoors…
Our support manager David NAOutdoors has replied to your questions in his Ask Me Anything thread. Read his answers to find out which theHunter weapon has been modelled from his own, the impressive variety of animals he has hunted in real life and much more.
That’s all from us for today, please note that from now on our weekly status updates will mostly be published on Thursdays.
Happy hunting!
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Features
Changes
* A sound has been added to the sliding feature
Bug fixes
* Fixed bug for Trophy Shot edit mode with User Interface sometimes not showing correctly
* Web GUI flow fixes (it fixes a couple of bugs when using the web GUI, like if you pressed ESC right after confirming an animal the animal would not fade out)
* Fix for F3 menu not displaying correct harvest information
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Hello hunters,
Most of the team is back from their holidays, fresh and well-rested (and annoying to those of us who haven’t had a chance to go on their vacations yet), and the work on the new reserve and species is humming here. In the meantime, we’re planning to release more of exciting stuff, such as a new weapon and more goodies. If everything goes as planned, in the next status update we’ll be able to share some sneak peek screenshots of the new animal with the community. Until then, since some of you have asked for more hints, I can reveal as much as it has four legs and one tail 😉
August Fiestivities
The Summer Fiesta event and grand sale started on Monday, much to the joy of the community. Since the event has been highly appreciated, and because some of you have already completed all the missions, we’re thinking to spice up the Fiesta a bit, more news about this to come!
AMA with NAOutdoors
It’s time to bring back the popular Ask Me Anything, and this time it will be with David Lucas, a.k.a NAOutdoors, our support champion, one the oldest veterans of the game and all-round cool guy. Please note that, although he is our support manager, support questions will not be allowed, as we have a special channel for those.
David’s AMA thread will be unlocked for 48 hours, starting at 9:30 CEST on August 8th. All the questions will be moderated and supervised by the moderation team, the standard AMA rules apply.
UPDATE: NAOutdoors’s AMA thread is now unlocked. Welcome with your questions!
That’s all from us for today!
Happy hunting!
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Hello hunters,
Here comes a usual status update from us.
Ballistics Tweaks
Following our yesterday’s game update, lots of you asked for more details on the ballistics tweaks that had been introduced for a number of weapons. As promised, Björn wrote down some information for you explaining what had been changed and what those changes would mean for the gameplay. Please read it in a separate post.
Summer Fiesta
To make the rest of your summer hunting a bit jollier and to help you savour the waiting for new species and reserve, we’ll be throwing a small event with a bunch of special challenges from Max the Taxidermist, Doc’s madcap buddy. The announcement and rules of the Fiesta event will be posted in the forums on Friday, so stay tuned.
German forum
German forum huntertalk.de is currently being inaccessible due to an update error. We’re working on bringing it back, our apologies for this inconvenience to the German community!
Twitter milestone and #thehunterart
We’ve recently reached a milestone of 4000 followers on Twitter, so we ran a small screenshot competition called #thehunterart to thank you for your support.
Here are the 4 winning shots, senders of which received some em$ from us, plus the fifth (the lowest one) which got a special token award for the funniest screenshot:
Make sure to follow us on Twitter to learn about upcoming competitions and prize draws.
Happy hunting!
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