Introducing the new theHunter launcher

Posted on May 27, 2014 by admin

With an aim to make theHunter more unified and intuitive, we’ve carried out an overhaul of our launcher and added new functionality and a completely different look.

The new launcher will look like theHunter.com website, with everything but the Downloads tab available and accessible from within. This means you will be able to log into the new launcher as you would to the website, and navigate the web interface (store, profiles, stats etc.) while it downloads and installs the game / patches. Clicking on external links will open your default browser. You will still be able to log into theHunter.com website, as usual. The new launcher will have a different background image, for you not to confuse it with the actual website.

With the new launcher installer available on the Downloads page, you will be able to create a shortcut, so you won’t need to access the website at all to start a game. It’ll be possible to do so from within the launcher by clicking the Hunt Now button which will open the drop down menu with Singleplayer and Multiplayer game options, currently available on the website. The Hunt Now button on the website will also be adjusted; instead of showing the drop down menu, it will now open the new launcher.

The new launcher will be released tomorrow, on May 28th 2014. You won’t need to download it separately, it’s going to be available as a part of our regular patch. If you run into a problem when installing the update, try to download and reinstall the launcher from the Downloads. For launchers older than 6.2.2 the installation wizard will open, in that case just click the Next button until the installation is done.

Here are some screenshots of the new launcher:

Looking forward to your feedback on the new launcher and happy hunting!

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T-Rex on theHunter.com: What really happened

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Expansive Worlds

Dear Hunters,

On Saturday night two images of a dinosaur appeared on our home page announcing that T-Rex is a new species in theHunter. Those images were not official and were posted by an unauthorized person. Thanks to the community, we discovered them quickly and took them down. The developers responded immediately and, following a thorough investigation, the issue was resolved within a couple of hours.

A community member and player had discovered a slight security loophole in the method we use to add banner images to our main page and, instead of reporting it to the Expansive Worlds team (as required by our Terms and Conditions) he used it to add those unauthorized images. We know the personal details of the culprit and the necessary legal actions against him will be taken. (Legal actions will be taken for violating paragraphs 10, 13, 20, 21, 22 of our Terms and Conditions which the player agreed to when registering at theHunter.com.) We want to thank those members of the community who helped us to identify the player.

To reiterate, this minor vulnerability was only affecting one small web-function for posting images and had nothing to do with the game itself or our database, hence we were not hacked. As far as access to sensitive data is concerned, no one has had any access to our database or our data in any way, thus you can be sure that your account details have not been compromised. To address the password question which has been touched upon numerous times in the community over the weekend, all passwords in our database are safely encrypted. Another important concern we want to reassure you about is that we never store any payment details on our servers. All payments are handled by our payment providers exclusively, so your details are safe.

A detailed technical description of what has happened:

The method for adding a banner image on theHunter.com is a part of our web API. One of the authentication layers of this API was missing, making it possible for someone to post an image by using a certain URL with some parameters added to it. The URL for adding banner images was guessable for someone determined enough to find it, and in this case the culprit would have had to make a HTTP POST request towards the URL in question, adding the title, link, image and so on, as parameters. Authentication has now been added to prevent further exploits.

We completely understand the security concerns that were raised in the community following this incident, however we want reassure you that it’s only one small web-function that had a vulnerability and we’ve taken all the necessary steps to ensure nothing like this can happen again in the future.

Best regards,

theHunter team

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Game Update

Posted on May 22, 2014 by admin

Features
* Cottontail Rabbit
* .22 Air Rifle
* 3-9x32mm Air Rifle Scope

Changes
* All menus are now stored locally instead of being web browsers which should increase performance for some players

Bug fixes
* Updated pathfinding maps for hogs on Rougarou Bayou
* Camera “moves up” when reloading lever-action rifles while crouched
* Trophy Shot confirm options now say “Confirm Trophy Shot” instead of “Confirm Profile Shot”
* Fixed performance issue when shooting at pheasants at close distance with birdshot. (Too many decals were created)

Cottontail Rabbit Gameplay Notes

The cottontail rabbit does not make sounds loud enough to be detected as clues on the HunterMate, nor does it respond to any lures. This can make rabbit hunting quite frustrating if you do not know some very specific details about it’s behaviour.

Due to its small size and the high grass in areas where it is typically found it can be very difficult to detect and your first encounter is likely to be seeing it hopping away from you or finding a fleeing track.

In contrast to other species having a rabbit flush is not all bad. The cottontail will begin to search for a place to hide while running, usually thick vegetation such as bushes and shrubs. Once it has found a suitable hiding spot it will stay there and won’t come out for quite a while.

Multiple tactics can be used in this situation such as staking out the area where the rabbit is believed to be hiding and picking it off with a precision weapon such as a bow or air rifle once it comes out or to simply stomp around in the hiding area hoping to flush the wabbit like a Pheasant, taking it with a shotgun. There may be other tactics that we haven’t thought of but that will be for you guys to figure out.

Happy Rabbit-Hunting!

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Status Update

Posted on May 21, 2014 by admin

Hello Hunters,

Today’s status update is longer than usual, but brimming with news, enjoy!

Trailer competition – Winners

All team members watched and evaluated the trailers submitted to the community competition and picked their favourites. The race for the first place was neck-to-neck, and the point difference was really tiny. And the winners are:

1st place and 5000 em$ or a Pathfinder membership bundle go to Aruvyel for this luminous trailer:

2nd place and 3000 em$ or a Wayfarer membership bundle go to this epic creation by Nuubialainen:

3rd place and 1000 em$ go to ColoradoKid, he is also the winner in the nomination “The coolest ending”:

We want to thank everyone who had taken time to create their trailers but didn’t make it to the victory stand, you’ve done a very impressive job: Rantanrave, jummpy, shotty420, fape19888, Chanelyn, Faran, The-Lakota

Another community competition for the best trophy concept is still ongoing, it might be your chance to win bushels of fame and glory alongside some em$.

New member of the art team

This week we welcomed a new intern on board. His name is Marcus and he will be working with Peter, Tomas and Oskar on the graphical side of theHunter. Read his intro below and give him a nice welcome.

Hi ,

My name is Marcus and I am the newest addition to the team. My role at Expansive Worlds will be creating various new 3D assets, and I will be working with my new teammates to keep the content flowing in the summer months!

Some general information about myself; since I was a little boy, I’ve always been a fan of wildlife and nature in general. And the desire to create new visual experiences has always driven me to try to push myself further. In my spare time I enjoy exploring new parts of the world, preferably visual experiences, and of course gaming! I also like spending time with friends and doing physical activities.

In 2011 I was accepted to a super fun gamedev school in Falun, Sweden, as a graphic artist. Two years later I moved to Stockholm to work for DICE as a 3D intern at Battlefield 4. Shooters have always been a big part of my gaming life and, since I am also fond of nature, I think I will enjoy my time here at Expansive Worlds, helping the team to develop already fantastic hunting experience!

Björn’s answers

Our game designer Björn has posted replies to the questions in his AMA, in which he revealed some hints about the future of theHunter, the most frustrating aspect of his work, which language the theHunter code is commented in, and lots of other curious things. If you want to get a better insight at the very bottom of the theHunter iceberg, give Björn’s post a read – it’s totally worth it.

“Be vewy, vewy quiet, I’m hunting wabbits!”

… you’ll be able to say very soon. As most of you correctly deduced from our “sneak peek” picture in the last week’s status update, the18th and by far the cutest species in theHunter yet will be the rabbit, and namely the Cottontail Rabbit. Probably the biggest cottontail novelty is that it is going to be the second species you can hunt for free, alongside the Mule Deer. The release will be announced soon, until then here are some screenshots to bring you into the “wabbit” frame of mind:

Happy hunting!

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Status Update

Posted on May 14, 2014 by admin

Hello hunters,

It’s time for a yet another status update, and here’s what’s been going on at EW:

Post-cloud-move turbulence

After we moved our game server to the cloud last week, as we’d anticipated, there has been a certain turmoil. In the week following the move we located and fixed more than 100 bugs, but there are still some serious residual bugs which we are aware of, both because of our own data and you reports in the forums (here, here and here). Here are the issues we are working on:

players not being able to confirm a kill
”black screen” issue
security certificate issue in Firefox
connection problems when starting a new MP game
constant loading of a map, the landing page etc.
password recovery not working
misplaced equipment issue which happened yesterday and affected some players (their large equipment placed on the maps returned back to their inventories)

We sincerely apologize for all the troubles and issues that have been interrupting your games and causing you frustration! You can be sure that fixing them is our highest priority right now.

Community competition – Create the concept for a theHunter trophy

Our last art competition Design theHunter outfit was a big success, and the winning design by Gostwind, incorporated into the real theHunter outfit by our art wizard Tomas, finally became available in the store. So, we thought we’d do it again.

Many of you have been expressing your disliking of the coin trophies which are currently being awarded for our standard competitions. In all honesty, we share your opinion on those and have been thinking to replace them with something more appealing for ages. Our art team have decided to give you, our community, a say and decide what trophies you want to have. Today we are announcing a new art competition to create the concept for a theHunter trophy to replace our old coins. The rules are going to be very similar to the outfit competition. Read them here and good luck!

Someone new is looming on the horizon…

It hasn’t been long since we released the Canada Goose, and today we’re thrilled to give you a sneak peek at the new, totally different species coming soon to EHR. We are not ready yet to reveal what it is or when it is going to be released, but here some hints for anyone curious: the new animal will live in Settler Creeks and Logger’s Point, will come with a couple of unique gameplay features and here is how it will look like against the horizon:

That is all from us for today.

Happy hunting!

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Game Update

Posted on May 13, 2014 by admin

Bug fixes
* Fix for waterfowl crash bug in multiplayer

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Game Update

Posted on May 9, 2014 by admin

Changes
* We have added a limit to how fast you can take pictures with the digital camera

Bug fixes
* Game server communication improvements

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Game Update

Posted on May 8, 2014 by admin

Features
* .30-30 Lever Action Rifle

Changes
* The Roosevelt elk now has a new Call animation.

Bug fixes
* Fix for crash at loading (as client) regarding waterfowls
* Fix for waterfowl decoys attracting wrong species
* Fix for trophy shot (it was possible to “throw” the animal up in the air and outside of the “invisible box”)
* Fixed bug – player wasn’t able to pose animals in water
* Fixed crossbow cocking bug
* Fixed tutorial bug where player couldn’t confirm animal after restart
* Fixed mute waterfowl ai groups bug in sp
* Fixed wrong stance shown in status bar when climbing towers or fast travelling
* Share on facebook checkbox only visible if connected to facebook (via theHunter.com)
* The huntermate map can now show more than five icons of the same type
* You can no longer be knocked down by an animal if you are in a tree stand
* Game server communication improvements
* Fix for texture bug with all scopes
* Fix for help messages in Trophy Shot not disappearing when exiting Trophy Shot
* Small terrain fixes

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Status Update

Posted on May 8, 2014 by admin

Hello Hunters,

Here are a couple of news for you from the drizzly Stockholm:

It’s cloud o’clock

… at last. During our maintenance yesterday, as the final step of implementing a new server solution for theHunter, we moved our game server to the cloud. It’s been a long and rather complicated process and it’s not completely finalized yet, as we’re continuing putting out fires, smashing bugs and indulge ourselves in other exciting activities to ensure the game runs without a hitch. It will take a while once the new environment works as smoothly as intended; we’ll keep monitoring the server performance and resolve issues on the fly. As always, your help in reporting bugs is appreciated, you can do it in this thread, detailed descriptions are mostly welcomed.

We want to thank you for all your patience and support during this process of server move. To make it up to you for a downtime yesterday and game disrupting issues, we’ll be adding an extra day to all active memberships.

AMA with Björn

björn öjlert It’s time for a new ‘Ask Me Anything’ session and now it’s our game designer Björn who will be answering your questions. You can think of Björn as the director of theHunter who oversees the overall picture and knows game’s every nook and cranny. He is the guy to ask ”big” questions, like gameplay, environment, balance, story etc., but he is also able to give thorough replies to more specific inquiries.

Björn’s AMA thread will be unlocked for 48 hours, starting at 12 p.m. CEST on May 9th. All the questions will be moderated and supervised by the moderation team, the standard AMA rules apply.

Trailer competition reminder

In case you missed it last week, we have a trailer competition running, and it’s a bit less than one week left to submit your video. You can read the rules and enter the competition here.

That’s it for now, happy hunting!

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Scheduled Server Maintenance

Posted on May 6, 2014 by admin

On Wednesday, 7th May 2014 at 06:00 CEST, we will take down the servers for scheduled maintenance work. The estimated downtime is about 3 hours. During this period you will not be able to login to your game accounts nor start any game sessions. All sessions active at this time will be terminated, so please make sure to finish your hunts before 6:00 CEST to avoid losing your stats.

After the maintenance is complete we will continuously monitor the servers and take an immediate action if any irregular behaviors are identified. We will do our best to make sure that the downtime is as short as possible but, as with all server work, there might be uncertainties and setbacks.

You can stay updated during the downtime by monitoring our Facebook page and Twitter handle, as well as our temporary landing page on www.thehunter.com.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

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