Howdy hunters,

Big day today! And not only because spring has finally come to Stockholm. After months of blood, sweat and tears (mostly tears), we are super thrilled to announce the release of one of the biggest features we’ve ever brought into theHunter. Introducing the brand new Trophy Lodge! If you watched our pre-release livestream on Tuesday, you already have a good understanding of what to expect, if not, you can catch the replay here.

You (and us too) have been waiting for this for quite some time, so I won’t be keeping you too long with my rambling. We put together game design notes which detail how to use the Trophy Lodge. In addition we welcome you to indulge yourselves in this detailed dev blog on how we developed this feature. We hope you enjoy!

Trophy Lodge Gameplay

The Trophy Lodge that you can find in the store features a “classy” style and has 21 slots for displaying different animals (4 large wall plaques for elk, red deer, moose and bison; 7 small wall plaques for small and medium sized deer, ibex, sheep and pigs; 5 small round platforms for small game; 1 large round platform for pheasants, turkey and geese; 2 medium platforms for wolves, foxes, coyotes and goats; 2 large platforms for bears and kangaroos).

You can own an infinite number of trophy lodges and you are free to fill them up as you see fit. Some players might opt to have one of two trophy lodges with their absolute best scoring animals, some will have one trophy lodge per reserve, where only species harvested in that reserve will be featured, some will dedicate one trophy lodge to their most special harvests including rares, non-typicals, amazing memories. Go nuts and enjoy!

All your Trophy Lodges are accessible from any in-game lodge that have a Trophy Lodge sign on the outside. You can find trophy lodges on all of the 11 reserves and when you approach the door you will be able to enter by pressing “E” (default key). You can rename your lodges as you wish, and lock them if you want to hide them from the curious eyes of your guests in a multiplayer game.

You can taxidermize every single animal you harvest, from now on. You can do it by paying a small em$ or gm$ fee to Max the Taxidermist (who is in charge of all this malarkey) from the game, right after taking a trophy shot or, if having chosen not to take one, by clicking Resume Game from the harvest screen (the latter prompt can be turned off in your gameplay settings). If you choose not to taxidermize your animal from within the game for whatever reason (no cash, you were not sure that your trophy was a rare one, just not in a mood or pressed the wrong button by mistake) your animal gets sent to Max the Taxidermist’s enormous fridge where it is kept for 24 hours in case you change your mind and want to turn it into a trophy. Please note that the taxidermy option from Max’s fridge costs slightly more than the on-spot taxidermy fee.

All your taxidermied animals can be found in the Trophy Manager, accessible from inside your Trophy Lodges by pressing “I” (default key). In the Trophy manager you can place your trophies in the current Trophy Lodge and check out trophy information. When inside a lodge you can also see details about displayed trophies by right-clicking on them; you can change their poses by left-clicking while the trophy info is visible. Try it out, it is much easier than it sounds. Any editing of the inside of a Trophy Lodge (placing animals, switching between poses) can only be done in your own lodge and in single player mode. Multiplayer is dedicated to showing off your lodges and trophies. When in multiplayer, guests can visit any of the host’s Trophy Lodges, unless locked.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you taxidermize your old animals?

This is a good question and one which has been asked many times already. At the launch of the development process we were seriously investigating this option, but unfortunately we quickly discovered it would not be possible due to technical limitations. In order to recreate a trophy from a harvested animal we are now sending and saving a whole bunch of new data, which we simply didn’t have any reason to store before. We realize that it is rather sad news for those of you with a bunch of non-typicals, rares and top-of-leaderboard animals under your belts, but we hope you will also see it as a fresh start that will rekindle your passion for hunting animals you might have grown bored of. Plus, who knows, maybe your new personal best is just around the corner 😉

Can I customize the interior of my trophy lodge?

Not right now, but we built our Trophy Lodge with this possibility in mind. If this feature is successful and popular, we are going to work on customization and additional trophy lodge features, so you will have a chance to make it into your very own hunter’s den.

Can I delete my trophies?

No, we wouldn’t like to go down that road, since all trophies are paid for. But we are working on the function that allows you to hide the ones you are not interested in displaying anymore.

Any other question you might have …

… please ask in this forum thread. We will be there to answer them as well as read about your first impressions and feedback.

Time to Kick it Off

We are celebrating the release of this huge feature with the Trophy Lodge Bonanza Competition, in which you can win a trophy lodge and some sweet em$ prizes. And also we bribed Max the Taxidermist with some pulled pork and whisky and got him to lower his em$ taxidermy fees by 50%. That means for the next 10 days, you can taxidermize for 10em$, until the end of Sunday, May 28th (around the time we expect Max to sober up). Today we are also starting a new season, whohoo! So, get out there and get stuffing.

Happy trophy hunting!

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