Status Update

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Greetings hunters,

Another week has passed and things are great at Expansive Worlds. Our interns are getting up to speed and hopefully you will soon see some of their creations in the game.

We’ve started working on a new species, we’re telling you this much since some of you seems to think that we aren’t working on the right things. We will tell you more at a later stage, but as many of you, who have been around for a while, knows, it takes a very long time to complete a new species. For those of you who are fairly new, a new animal requires a lot of work from our graphic artists, animators, game programmers and game designer and most of the time they can’t work simultaneously, since they need to wait until the previous discipline has completed his part. We can also tell you that its one of the species mentioned in the user survey posted a while ago. So feel free to speculate on what it might be 😉

We’re aiming at releasing a bunch of new missions next week. The missions are being tested at this very moment and we need a few more days to make sure everything is fine and dandy.

And the winner is…
After long and hard discussions we’ve finally selected a winner in the Profile Shot Competition. We’d like to thank all of you who participated, and if you liked this kind of competition let us know, we might have another one in the future.

1st prize goes to ohotnikna who gets 5000 em$
 Second prize goes to vladimiroquai who gets 2500 em$

And finally third prize goes to ToyBoy who gets 1000 em$

We’ll end this status update with an apology. In the last installer we managed to add a rather undesirable feature. When you install the game the installer makes your browser auto start when you boot your PC and sets theHunter as default web site. This was never our intention, but we have added a fix in the new launcher that will remove this. So if you are experiencing these problems just update the launcher (you do this by starting a new game) and the problem will be resolved.

If for some reason the automatic fix does not resolve the problem you can manually address it by following these steps:

(Windows XP, Windows 7)

  1. Open the start menu and navigate to “All Programs/Startup”
  2. Right click “theHunter” and select “Delete”
  3. If there is a dialog about administrator permissions click “Continue”
  4. Done!

(Windows 8)

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete
  2. Select “Task Manager”
  3. Select the “Startup” tab
  4. Right click “theHunter” and select “Disable”
  5. Done!

Once again, we’re terribly sorry about this. Happy hunting!

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Laura Francese Competitions

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Expansive Worlds has teamed up with the famous archer and avid bow hunter Laura Francese to create new exciting content for the game.

The first thing to come out of this partnership is a set of all new multi-species competitions developed in close collaboration with Laura that are now part of the regular competition schedule, starting today. To learn more about Laura and her latest adventures, we highly recommend that you like her page on Facebook.

More content is in development so stay tuned!

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Status Update

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Dear hunters,

The sun is shining in Stockholm so life as a developer is good since we can see other people enjoy it outside.

New feature – Profile shot
Members can now take profile pictures of their character in the game. To take a picture you first activate the mirror cam by pressing F2 (default key) and to enable camera mode you press the space key. You can move the camera around and take the photo by pressing left mouse button. Here are some pretty examples:

Competition
We’ve kicked off a profile shot competition where you can win up to 5000 ems$! Check out the rules and submit your entry here.

New items – sunglasses
If you want to look extra cool in the forest you should of course equip the latest addition to the store: sunglasses. These awesome looking sunglasses will affect game play in no way what so ever, but they will make you look pretty bad-ass.

New functionality – Facebook connect
If you are a Facebook user you can connect your theHunter account to Facebook to make it easier to login. To do so, go to your account settings (the cogwheel in the main menu) and select Facebook settings. Once you’ve connected your account you can use Facebook to login.

We need your help
Since we’re always trying to gain more players we would greatly appreciate if you can help us with voting for us on steam greenlight and also give a great rating and review on Chrome Web Store.
We’d also like to push for the recruit a friend feature. Not only do you get more friends to play with, but you will also get rewarded in the form of free membership if your friend becomes a member (if you’re already a member the extra days will be added to your membership).

Happy hunting!

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Game Update

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Features
* Avatar photo feature added to the game. Players can take avatar photos in the mirror cam that will be shown on the players profile page (web).
* Hunter score is shown in the Team stats view (F3)

Bug fixes
* Log files are no longer saved in the game folder (heartbeat_response, …)
* Fire notification is not sent when shooting at dead animals
* Game startup crash fix

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Server Update – GM$

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What is it?

A new currency that can be earned through play and used to buy a select number of items in the store.

How do I get it?

You can earn gm$ through completing missions and in some cases by winning competitions.

It is not possible to convert gm$ to em$ or vice versa.

What can I do with it?

Currently you can use gm$ to buy a select number of consumable items in the store such as ammo, licenses and scents. More may be added in the future.

Does this make memberships redundant?

While gm$ allows players to experience more of the game for free earning it is hard work and the most convenient option is still to get a paid membership. Memberships also come with additional benefits such as the ability to host multiplayer games and we are working on more membership exclusive features, one of which should come very soon…

Finally keep in mind that missions are finite so there’s a limit to how far you can go using only gm$.

Do I get gm$ for missions already completed before this update?

No, gm$ will only be awarded for missions completed after this update. There’s, however, a new option to reset missions which allows you to complete these missions again.

This is a paid option but we will allow one free reset during this first week so that everyone has a chance to get on the gm$ train without paying.

Missions can be reset by purchasing this item in the store.

What does gm$ stand for?

Gm$ is pronounced “gems” but other than that it’s just a currency like $,€ or gold, silver and sea shells. It doesn’t stand for anything unless you want it to.

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Status Update

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It’s status update time!

We’ve just on-boarded three new interns and today’s status update will focus on them and their introductions. They all come from The Game Assembly, the same school as Tomas, Hampus and Danny went to.

Hi, everyone!

My name is Oskar and I’ve just now started my internship at Expansive Worlds, where I will be doing graphical content for theHunter.

I’m originally from Varberg, a small town on the west coast of Sweden, and I’ve lived there for the most part of my life. I like spending time with my girlfriend, family and friends, travelling and practicing my art. I also like watching movies and television shows, which I use as a source of inspiration.

My first brush with video games was Super Mario Bros on the NES in the late ’80s. Ever since, I’ve been hooked. When I was a kid I dreamt of one day being able to work with games but as I grew older I somehow got the idea that wouldn’t be possible while living in Sweden.

So I got into web development but after a couple of years it didn’t feel right. I thought to myself “if I’m gonna spend a third of my life or more working, it should be with something that I really enjoy!” and so, I was drawn back to video games.

In the short time that I’ve been here, I’ve noticed how dedicated many of you are about hunting and theHunter, and also how dedicated the team is to bringing you this experience.
I’m really excited about the opportunity to be a part of that and I promise you all I will do my best!

 

Hello there!
I am one of the new interns here at Expansive Worlds and I’ve joined the Client Programming team. My name is Robin Andersson and I am 22 years of age and have recently moved to the beautiful capital, Stockholm (totally worth visiting, by the way).

I am originally hailing from Gothenburg but I have also studied and lived in Malmö for two years.
Apart from the obvious, being a game enthusiast, I also love sailing and sports in general. I have trained judo since I was 9 years old until I injured myself badly in a competition at the age of 17. I have participated in the Swedish National Cup but since the injury training has been very off and on. My brother (big fan of theHunter) has also been an important part of my life: So this is a little shout out, I guess. Best guy ever!
For the last two years I have deeply immersed myself in trying to become a good programmer, which now has given me the favorable opportunity to be part of this great team. I will try my best for them, myself and for you out there!

 

Hi there. My name is Daniel Jansson and I have just started my internship as a Level Designer here at Expansive Worlds. I have always enjoyed the creative process and have worked on pen and paper RPG’s as well as done a fair deal of writing. But a few years back I set my sights on computer game development and managed to get accepted into The Game Assembly in Malmö as a Level Design student.

Two years of intense studies later, I am now sitting in Stockholm working on The Hunter and having a great time. Apart from games I enjoy reading and have a weak spot for really, really bad B and C movies. Also I am a beer nerd, in particular when it comes to the various traditional Belgian style beers. Especially sour beer. Yeah, sour beer is good for you.

So please give the guys a warm welcome!

We’re aiming to release the next gen of the “mirror cam” some time next week and we’re also working on something that might please our guest players.

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Status Update

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We have closed down the survey since we felt we had enough answers. We’d like to thank all of you who took the time to fill it out. The findings will guide us in improving the game and to make sure we’re working on the things you, our community, wants. We had a workshop on Tuesday, where we discussed the result of the survey and made some initial planning. It seems as Daniel is very disappointed that not more of you seemed to like the idea of paintball guns in the game. I’m sure he’ll tell you about his vision when it comes to the subject of paintball later on.

We also spent a few hours trying some different rifles at the shooting range. Unfortunately we had so much fun so we totally forgot to take pictures…

We’ve launched a new feature today: Teams! Teams is an optional way to organize players in a multiplayer game into teams. This can be used for things like unofficial competitions with players on the same server or to allow private communication between a group of players in a free for all game. There might also be other uses that we haven’t thought of so be creative! You will soon be able to read more about how teams work in the wiki.

We are aware of that there may be some questionable ethics involved in the type of hunting that comes from real-time competition but we feel that this is a case where fun has to prevail over realism.
We would also like to point out that this is an experimental feature and we will, as always, monitor community feedback to guide its future development.

Sadly we have something negative to bring up. We really don’t want to bring it up, since we don’t want this to happen in our game, but unfortunately it does. If a player uses a hijacked PayPal account or stolen credit card to pay for anything in the game, he/she will immediately be banned from the game. It is against the law and it gets reported to the police, but it also costs us a lot of money in fees.

We’ve fixed a few minor bugs in the game and you can read more about in the game update.

Happy Hunting!

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Game Update

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Features
* Multilayer Teams is an optional way to organize players in a multiplayer game into teams. This can be used for things like unofficial competitions with players on the same server or to allow private communication between a group of players in a free for all game. Learn More https://www.thehunterwiki.com/index.php?title=Teams
* Player names are shown in the correct color in the chat.
* Network data optimization (a little less bandwidth is used)
* Localization has been updated

Bug fixes
* Crash fix for a random crash that could happen after playing for more than half an hour.
* Fixed bug where only animals shot by the host lowered the animal feeders attractiveness.
* Fix for feral hog male pie bald being registered as common

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Status Update

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Today we can proudly announce that we’ve released a new weapon, the 9.3×62 Anschütz Engraved, which has been retrofitted with a unique stock and detailed engravings by the highly acclaimed Doc Monsignor studio. We hope you like it!

We’ve also released new competitions for the 9.3×62 Anschütz Engraved, join them now!

We can also announce that we’re working on a Cross Species Scoring system used in the game client to be able to run local competitions or just to organize the hunts a bit better with groups of hunters and such. You will be able to assign yourselves to different groups of hunters, and if you want, compete with each other withing the game.
It’s not something that will be reflected in the web in any way though, at least not for the time being.
We will release more information regarding this feature in the upcoming Status Updates.

Finally, we want to remind you that it’s not allowed to modify the game in any way, doing so will get your account banned.

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