Introducing Primal PVP
PVP has been available in Primal since we first released the game in Early Access. However, as many of you may have noticed, it came with an “Experimental” label. The reason for this is that we didn’t feel that the implementation was good enough to be enjoyed by the majority of the community but fun enough for daredevils to try an unpolished experimental feature.
The great news is that with this release packed with goodies, we finally feel that this feature has reached a level where this label is no longer required.
The Vision
With theHunter: Primal we aim to create something truly unique. Merging modern hunting gameplay, survival, prehistoric beasts and years of accumulated knowledge of wildlife simulation has taken us a long way towards this goal, but we’re far from done.
First, here’s a little historical background for you. We’ve been developing theHunter for about 5 years now and during this time we’ve often come across two reactions to the game, the first one having become the basis for Primal : “Awesome game, but can I hunt dinosaurs?”. Well, you can now and with this update we aim to address the other reaction which involves an observation we’ve made when seeing two players playing theHunter in multiplayer for the first time. Surprisingly, the first thing that happens very often is that one of them tries to shoot the other one in the face. This fascinating observation does not only tells us something profound about human nature but also hints that there is an unfulfilled need for something more sinister in the franchise.
Enter theHunter: Primal. theHunter’s harsh and unforgiving sibling where we can do all the things that many players always wanted to do in theHunter but, if implemented, they would ruin the realistic and ethical experience that is the core of that game.
Which brings us to the topic of today. How do you integrate the pleasure of shooting your friends into a prehistoric survival hunting game? What we didn’t want to do was to create a stand alone deathmatch game that had no relation to the rest of the survival sandbox experience. With this in mind we decided to try to make this a more unique and integrated feature by following one simple design rule: “The player is just another huntable species”. In other words we had to approach PVP design the same way we would when designing a new species…
The new
Shot Placement
All species in Primal have an elaborate hit detection system that includes both external and internal organs.
To make the player feel as a huntable species, it seemed natural to extend this system to PVP as well. All players now have a full set of internal organs that create various amounts of bleed damage when penetrated by various weapons in the game. When fighting/hunting other players shot placement can make all the difference, just as it does when shooting at the local wildlife. For example, a shot to the heart/brain is instantly lethal, lungs deal heavy damage while intestines/stomach result in low but painfully prolonged bleed damage. Hitting external organs, such as arms and legs, also makes a difference (lower damage) compared to hitting other parts. such as the torso and head. Keep in mind though, that unlike in most other games a headshot in Primal is not always lethal. If you aim for the head you need to make sure to hit the brain and with this in mind it is usually safer to go for the much larger vital area in the chest in situations where you don’t have much time to aim.
Tombs
When a player dies we now spawn a small burial monument at the place of death. This monument can be interacted with using the SettlerMate in the same way you would confirm a fallen animal. Doing so brings up a screen where you can see how the player died similar to the harvest counterpart when claiming animals.
There’s currently no score for killing players as, for the moment, the EG cooperation couldn’t care less what you do to other pioneers but examining these monuments can teach you some useful things, like where to aim and where to not get shot yourself.
Teams
Similar to the Utahraptor ostrommaysorum, Homo sapiens is a social hunter. To facilitate and nurture this trait we’ve added a system where pioneers, that have somehow managed to survive their first encounter with each other, can band together and deal pain to fellow settlers and wildlife alike.
In PVP games only members of the same team can see each other on the map. They can also share waypoints and chat privately by using “/t” when sending a message. Teams can be locked, and the first player to join a team automatically becomes its leader with the power to accept new members. The team interface can be reached by entering the in-game menu “Esc” and clicking “Teams”.
The team interface also includes shared statistics that can be used to measure progress compared to the other teams currently in the game.
Teams are also available in Coop games where the have the same kind of functionality as in PVP games.
Outro
We hope that you enjoy these new features as much as we did when testing them. It’s quite magical when after moving silently through the woods for a prolonged time two teams suddenly run into each other and all hell breaks loose.
Happy Homo Sapiens hunting!
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