Howdy hunters,

We are back from the Easter break and the exciting stuff I mentioned last week is starting to happen! Earlier today our backend programmer Emil performed server maintenance during which he deployed some important changes to how hunting statistics get saved in the database. Long story short, with these changes we are hoping to see the end of the tracking, spotting, travelling and skill data getting lost if the game doesn’t close properly. You can find the details of the server update here. Unfortunately, your already lost stats will not be registered retroactively, but we’re planning to run a double XP weekend soon, so you’ll have a chance to catch up! Stay tuned.

Just a couple minutes ago we also released a game patch with a bunch of cool things. Apart from some (did I say some? lots!)  fixes, we’re also listening to your feedback and trying to stick to our promise and invest more time and resources into improving the quality of the game. So, our sound designer Greg has given new voices to several weapons (he is super grateful for all the suggestions you shared with him in this thread). And our animation team has been revamping some old weapon animations to make them more alive and realistic. Here are some notes from our animation intern Morris, who has been mostly working on this, explaining the changes and the super cool video he made for you showing the evolution of the animations.

Revamped animations

Now that we have three animators on the project we feel that we have the time to begin reworking some of the older animations in the game. The way we’re approaching this is in layers, so for now we’re mainly focusing on the bigger animations per weapon; reloads and pumps. And when these are done and we have more time for more revamps we’ll continue with the next layer (could be idle variations, movement-animations, how the hands are holding the weapon, etc).

In the video we show an excerpt of how some of the animations are now (the old animations) followed by the new rework of those animations. Main things to notice is that with the new animations we’re focusing on a couple of things to improve:

• Show the weapon from a better angle during reloads/pumps, i.e. if the character is inserting bullets we try to pose the weapon in a more natural way so that the player can see what is happening.
• Less robotic movements. Explains itself 🙂
• Head and spine-movements during third person animations. Previously only the arms have been moving during the third-person animations, and it has been something we’ve wanted to fix.
• Different animations depending on whether the player is in standing or prone position. Only a minor thing, but some reloads will look a bit different in standing and prone for more immersion.

Free species weekend

To celebrate these hefty improvements and to thank you for your passion and loyalty, we’re making all animals free to hunt from today until the end of the weekend. Why yes, Polar Bear will be in a huntable mode and free as well (and will remain in the huntable mode until we communicate otherwise). While this is mostly good news for guests, we wanted to do something for our members as well, so we put together a large equipment sale (starts around lunchtime CEST tomorrow) during which you can stock up on tents, tripods, blinds and similar stuff, because one can never have too many of those babies. There will also be a little weekend competition for you, check back for more news tomorrow.

Meet Johanna

Last but not least, we have another new face on the team. Meet our 2D/Community intern Johanna, she will be helping us with social media and, well, 2D graphics. She has already been studying the forums, learned some ropes from you guys and harvested her first Mulie! Say hello to Johanna 😉

Ohoy!
My name is Johanna Schramm and I am the new 2D/community intern here at Expansive Worlds, helping out on theHunter.
I am a game graphics student with a passion for social media and graphical design, currently finishing my bachelor’s degree at Södertörns Högskola. I have previously studied graphic design and communication as well as English. I am born and raised in Stockholm, where I also live today with my fiancé and our cat Strumpan (Swedish for sock). I spend most of my spare time on cosplay – making costumes from games/films/comics etc. (you can check my official Facebook page, if interested) and I also love art and eSports.
The first game I remember playing is Keen 4 on Windows 95. Ever since I have fallen in love with the magical world of games more and more. An interest that has led me all the way here!
As a child my family went camping for a few weeks every summer. We would sleep in a tent and hear the animals roaming around the forest, go fishing and cooking our food outside. I hope this has prepared me for this great hunter adventure!
I hope to create content that you can all enjoy. I’m truly astonished by the passion theHunter brings out in the community, and I’m super excited to be a part of it!

That’s it for today, happy hunting all!

PS: There have been some questions about our traditional April Fool’s pranks. To the utter disappointment of our stand-up prankster game designer April Primera, responsible for all our previous gems (such as this, this and of course this), this year we’ve decided to follow the feedback we’ve read in the forums and not do anything foolish and instead focus on more serious things, such as bugs.

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