Status Update

Happy 4th of July!

So we’re a bit late with this weeks status update, and we’re sorry about that. Today’s update will be short and sweet due to us being terribly busy.

It’s the fourth of July so we thought that, especially our players from the US, would appreciate a free USA t-shirt. It’ll only be free to the players who log in today. We will however sell it in the store at a later date. (The shirts will be delivered over time today. We can’t do all nationalities but we’ll release some every now and then)

We’re getting a lot of questions about when we’ll release the fox. We’re happy that you are eager, but unfortunately we feel that we need more time to tweak and polish it. So please bear with us.

Happy hunting!

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Game Update

Features
* Winter Camo Ground Blind
* The chat now shows the latest 28 messages when opened.

Bug fixes
* Fix for Singleplayer “disconnection” after pausing and/or alt-tabbing the game for a while
* World items textures when placed do not switch anymore (if you had an orange and a white tent close to each other, they could switch textures so the white was orange and vice versa)
* In-game map fix (when using the scroll button the map stopped working)
* Fixed some skinning issues on the Doc Monsignor clothes
* Ground blind model made a little higher
* Muzzleloader animation fix when aiming in prone (animation was missing)
* Muzzleloader will change your stance from prone/crouch to stand when character starts reloading
* You can use “Enter” in the game messages that have an “Ok” button (like in tutorials or the stone in Hemmeldal)

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Status update

Time flies, and its´already Wednesday again which means another status update!

Apart from further bug fixing on both the game client and the servers work is being done on a few other things. Last week we mentioned the Red Fox, which is now pretty much finalized by the art department. Here´s a picture showing what the most common color variation will look like. What “rare” variations will be included will be reserved for those lucky hunters who spot them in the game as they are released!

Red Fox WIP

Red Fox Work in Progress

As you may also know that we´re working on adding proper first person animations to all the weapons. A feature that we choose to leave out for the multiplayer release, and which has spawned a lot of both positive and negative opinions. But of course, now that we have the “holstering” function there´s no reason for not having the weapons clearly visible on the screen for those who like that, and if not only for the simple reason that you should definitely be able to see all the swag you buy at the store. As we replaced the old character “rig” (the floating arms and torso) with our full body character there´s some new things that we also have to take into account as we make the new animations. As unfortunate as it is we can´t simply convert the old animations to the new system as the animations are inherently liked to the old skeleton/rig that was used. Below is an image showing the angle of rifles that we´ve found to work quite well. It´s only a little different compared to the old animations, but we´trying to find a slightly better balance as the weapon should not take up neither too much or too little space on the screen. It should also feel lite you´re holding the weapon in as an natural pose as possible while still being able to see it.

.300_rifle_view

.300 Rifle view

That´s all for this week. Happy hunting!

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Status update

Status update time! A little light today as we´re getting closer to that time of the year when people go on vacation and people will begin to drop off and come back within the coming weeks. Currently Pim is out of the office for two weeks getting some well deserved rest and family time. But that does not mean things will stop happening at the studio. As the multiplayer release is getting more and more stable we will start looking at what to do next, and we still make small tweaks here and there to make sure everything is running smoothly.

We have a bunch of new items in the pipeline, some of which will be announced before being released, and others being a surprise. The Red fox is being worked on and the art is getting near completion. We have implemented a number of points from the feedback we got from you guys and it should be quite hard to confuse the fox with any other animal at this point.

Also, we should mention that it´s Mattias (our master thesis student) last week at the office, and this is probably his last day, if the public transportation strike going on here in Sweden right now is still on tomorrow! For 20 weeks he has been working with mobile support for thehunter and it´s been a great experience having him on board. Time will tell how we might choose to use his work.

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Game Update

Bug fixes
* Fix for the “pheasants don’t die on first hit”
* Iron sight tweaked for most weapons
* Fix for more than max number of players joining a game
* Bug when accessing inventory right after shooting the last bullet of the ammo pack fixed

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Status Update

Another Wednesday, another status update. As you might have noticed we’re killing bugs as fast as we can right now. We know there are more in there, so our focus is to continue to do that for as long as we need to.

We hear a lot of voices raised about the first person animations, we know some of you don’t like it as it is, but, as we’ve mentioned before, we’re working on remaking them. It will take time and we can’t release them one by one, so right now you just have to bear with us. But remember, good things comes to those who waits… 😉

Work on the fox is going well, but we still have a lot of work left before we can start testing it. We’ll let you guys know more at a later stage.

We would like to thank the fantastic people who helped us test multiplayer, the alpha and beta test teams. We would never have completed multiplayer as fast as we did without your help.
As a token of our gratitude we’ve awarded you with a special in-game item that only you guys and gals will ever receive. We know it’s not much, compared to what you have done for the game, but at least other players will be able to see that you were part of the team that made multiplayer happen when they see your avatar in theHunter.

We’d also like to thank all the members of the community who helped other players during the update. There were a bunch of you in the live chat and some have helped out on Facebook and in the forums. Having such helpful people in the community is such a great support for our small dev team.

We’ve also awarded Pioneers and Wardens with a special item as well, so others can see that you, back in the days, were early supporters of the game and are still around.

Happy Hunting!

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Game Update

Features
* The chat now shows a time stamp for every message and notification
* You can now bind zoom in / out keys.

Bug fixes
* Fix for the “shoot through animal” bug
* Auto-walk is disabled when entering the Confirm kill screen
* Changing stance does not spook animals as easily as before
* Optimized the amount of data sent at connect
* You can no longer connect to a full game
* Fix for the “pickup collectable” crash
* Fast travel distance is not added to your total traveled distance in the statistics
* AI – Animals did not see or hear you in certain situations.
* Fix for crash when connecting to a game
* Increased the time without network packets before the “connection issue” screen is shown

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Server Update

Features
– Animals licenses are now listed when hovering the mouse over your membership type

Bug Fixes
– Members now correctly always get 3 boxes of basic ammo for each owned weapon every time the client is started
– Tracer arrows and other ammo that have been purchased outside the membership no longer spontaneously disappear from the inventory*
– Empty ammo boxes and other consumables are now always removed correctly from the inventory when depleted
– Competition trophies, Em$ and “Doc messages” are now awarded correctly when competitions end**.

*We are working on restoring the ammo lost during the weekend to those affected. This should be completed in a couple of hours.

**We are working on restoring the trophies (Easter etc.) that went missing at the multiplayer launch.

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Status Update

Dear hunters,

So we launched multiplayer. We are so happy it’s finally out and we hope that most of you are so too. We know some of you guys don’t like changes, but in this case change was inevitable. Change isn’t always a bad thing and it helps if you are open and embrace it.

We know that there still are some bugs in there and, as we told you in a previous status update, we’ve planned to fix them now. Some of the bugs that might appear will only show up now when we get thousands of players coming in to play the game. Our aim is to fix them as soon as we possibly can. So bear with us while we fix them. Today we’re releasing a new Launcher that will help us finding bugs and other issues.

We don’t see the release of multiplayer as us being finished just because it’s released, but rather the start of a new era. A new era containing a lot of improvements of the game and new features. So please don’t focus on finding changes you don’t like, but rather embrace what cool new features are there and how you can re-explore a world of hunting you’ve learnt to like and even love.

We’d like to thank Pratze, with friends, who made a fantastic multiplayer trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p2e_7z_jiA) and BillytheCrayon who made great informative videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YhCueAuf8g) of the changes that came with multiplayer. We’d also like to thank all you fantastic people who helped out and seeded the torrent when we got overloaded, and all of you who helped other players when they had problems with the download.

I, Pim, would also like to, publicly, thank the team for the outstanding effort this has been.  I’ve never worked with such a dedicated and talented team before. What you guys have achieved is amazing. The number of hours you’ve put in is just crazy and I hope you feel that it was worth it. A big thanks goes to the team members families who have had to put up with a lot of absence. I hope you understand that Expansive Worlds and our community needed some extra time from them for a while. Thank you all!

A lot of the answers to the questions regarding changes after the release of multiplayer can be found here (e.g. first person animations):
https://news.thehunter.com/multiplayer-update-changelog/ (please read it through)

The most common problems people have come across seems to be the following:

Torrent problem
Possible solution: Delete the torrent folder where the game is installed (default: C:\Program Files (x86)\theHunter) and launch the Launcher through the game site

Settings problem (error 16008)
Solution: Change settings in the launcher (upper right corner) and save them.

The launcher shows a red error message saying “Error 16009 – Graphics card does not support D3DQUERYTYPE_EVENT”
It could be that your graphics card is not supported. You will need another graphics card to play the game. 

Happy Hunting!

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail

Multiplayer Update

Features

Multiplayer

Up to 8 players can now hunt together in the same game world.

Full Player Character

The player now has a full body opposed to the “floating torso” of the old game. Hundreds of player animations, including movement and item manipulation, have been completely remade from scratch using this new body.

There are now multiple in-game characters to choose from with matching web avatars. This means that when you pose by your trophy in the game this photo will match your avatar on the web.

Inventory Revamp

The inventory has been completely revamped. Most notable changes:

  • Previously the amount of items you were able to carry where limited by the size of the “backpack” grid and the size of the item icons. This has now been replaced with a system where icon size no longer matter. Each item instead has a “capacity cost” and the sum of the capacity costs of the items carried must be lower than the maximum carry capacity. This capacity can of course be increased like before by purchasing a backpack. This system is a lot more flexible than the old one and allows for some interesting gameplay tweaks such as high calibre ammunition taking more space than low calibre counterparts giving the low cals a much needed edge.

  • Items can now be more quickly equipped by directly clicking the slot that you want to place them in. This action brings up a list with only the items that are compatible with the selected slot.

  • Clothing can now be changed in the in-game inventory when you are in a lodge area or near a tent.

  • Item descriptions can now be read directly in the in-game inventory by pressing the corresponding “i” icon.

  • There are now a total of 10 equipment slots that allows quick access to carried items. Some can be used from game start while others require a specific HunterScore to unlock. The HunterScore restriction can be bypassed by purchasing pouches and holsters in the store:

    Slot

    Type

    HS Unlock Level

    Store Unlock Item

    Weapon 1

    Any Weapon

    0

    Weapon 2

    Any Weapon

    0

    Small Weapon 1

    Only Handguns

    600

    Small Weapon Holster

    Small Equipment 1

    Any Equipable Small Item

    0

    Small Equipment 2

    Any Equipable Small Item

    0

    Small Equipment 3

    Any Equipable Small Item

    0

    Small Equipment 4

    Any Equipable Small Item

    60

    Small Equipment Pouch 4

    Small Equipment 5

    Any Equipable Small Item

    180

    Small Equipment Pouch 5

    Small Equipment 6

    Any Equipable Small Item

    360

    Small Equipment Pouch 6

    Large Equipment 1

    Any Large Item

    0

Unequip Current Item

It’s now possible to unequip the currently equipped item (default key: H). This allows you to walk around with no item obstructing your view since you have nothing in your hands.

Local Chat

There is now a local chat that allows quick communication with everyone in the current multiplayer game (default key: Enter).

The local chat has some commands that can be used for advanced communication:

Command

Function

/w playername

Whisper a message to the targeted player. This message will not be shared with the rest of the players on the server.

/r

Whisper a reply to the last player to send you a whisper.

/players

Show the names of all players on the server.

/afk

Set your status to “Away From Keyboard”. This is only visible to other players if they have the “Show player names” option turned on.

/clear

Removes all text from the screen.

There are also some keyboard commands:

Key

Function

TAB

Auto-Completes player names. For example if there is a player called John42 on the server and you type “Jo” then press TAB the rest is automatically completed resulting in: “John42”.

UP/DOWN ARROW

Cycle previous entries

Full Screen Map Revamp

The full screen map has received a facelift and a couple of new features. One of them is fast travel which you can read about in the next section. The other is the ability to draw shared images in the map. This is a feature that we hope may come handy when planning hunting strategies.

Fast Travel

Retire to lodge/campsite has been replaced by more flexible fast travel system which lets you quickly travel to any lodge, campsite or tent on the map.

Using the fast travel option cost Camping Supplies just like the old retire to option used to. The cost is now, however, based on distance (1 supply / km).

Fast travel can only be used once every in-game hour and will spook all animals at the target location once you arrive.

Fast travel is performed by entering the full screen map (default key: M) and clicking on the location you want to travel to. More information can be found by reading the store/inventory description of Camping Supplies.

First Aid Kit

The First Aid Kit can now be used to heal fallen friends in addition to healing yourself. Just walk up to your unfortunate friend and press the environment interaction key (default key: E).

Environment Based Camo

When browsing the store you’ll notice that there are a lot more types of clothing that there used to be. One of these is the “Sneaky 3D Summer Forest Camouflage Outfit”. What’s special about this set is that it’s using a new type of camo that give very good visual camouflage in the areas that it is tailor made for. In this case all forest areas at Whitehart, Logger’s Point, Settler Creeks and Red Feather Falls.

One of the advantages of using this camo is that it works on all species, not only deer, as in the case of the B&C camo. The downside is of course that you need to be more aware of your surroundings, for instance only get close when you are in a forest area, and that it has no scent or sound reduction. In the end it comes down to which species you expect to encounter and which environments plan to hunt in.

Options

All options except the graphics settings* can now be changed in the game client. There are also a couple of new options under “Gameplay”:

Option

Description

Show player names

Toggles the display of player name, distance and status in the game

Show item name

Toggles a permanent display of the currently equipped item in the low right corner of the screen

Show player spotting information

Toggles the display of player spotting information in the game.

Show animal spotting information

Toggles the display of animal spotting information in the game.

Enable chat

Toggles the display of the local game chat.

*Graphics settings are still set in the launcher using the “gear” button.

Web

In addition to the new features required to handle multiplayer games the webpage has also been completely revamped with a more modern and accessible interface.

Tweaks

Memberships

Guests can now enter any reserve, both in multiplayer and singleplayer, but are only allowed to hunt Mule Deer unless another license has been purchased.

Guests are not allowed to host multiplayer games but can join members if the host allows it.

Callers

All callers now work like the Roe & Red Deer callers. This means that you no longer need to press the left mouse button to enter “call mode” before calling. You can now call as soon as the caller is equipped by holding down the left mouse button. It’s now also possible to use all callers while walking/running.

Weapons

All weapons now have a slight zoom when using the iron sights to simulate the player “taking aim”.

Default Controls

The default controls of the game have been slightly modified in order to make room for new features and to make the game more accessible for new players. If you don’t like these controls it’s possible to change them using the options menu. These are the changes:

Action

New Default

Toggle Walk/Run

C

Raise Weapon

Right Mouse Button

Zoom In (Optics)

Mouse Wheel Up

Zoom Out (Optics)

Mouse Wheel Down

Unequip Item*

H

Equip Weapon 3*

3

Equip Small Item 1

4

Equip Small Item 2

5

Equip Small Item 3*

6

Equip Small Item 4*

7

Equip Small Item 5*

8

Equip Small Item 6*

9

Equip Large Item 1

0

Equip Binoculars

Replaced by Equip Small Item 3

Make A Sound

F

Local Chat*

Enter

Messenger

Currently Disabled

*New feature

HunterMate Apps

The HunterMate has finally entered the 21st century and received a much needed internal flash memory. This means that you no longer need to equip apps in the game slot to use them. The “Lane Bandit” game can be played at any time by hitting the app button (default key: G) once it has been purchased from the store.

The free “Bust Through” game is not available anymore but may return if there is demand for it.

Tracking

Tracks older than the first tracked confirmed from an individual animal are no longer removed. This is to prevent confusion when multiple hunters are tracking the same animal.

Known Issues

Messenger

In-game access to the messenger is currently disabled (previous default key: Enter). We are working on a revised version of this service.

First Person Weapon Animations

It’s currently hard for the player to see what they are doing with their weapon compared to the pre-multiplayer version. This is because animations now need to look natural both to you (first person) and the other players (third person) in the game. Because of time constraints we had to focus on third person for this release. We are already working hard to fix this by creating brand new tailor made first person animations.

Track IR

Track IR support is currently disabled. It’s on our TODO-list but we have no exact release date at this point.

Comments

Share this
Facebooktwitterredditmail