Content Update Patch notes #1 - 4th May, 2018

We are happy to announce the first big Hunt: Showdown Early Access content update. This patch introduces new features and equipment, as well as changes to the game and a number of bug fixes.

Version: 0.216
SteambuildID: 2741307
Client patch size: 3.5GB
This patch will be first available on the Hunt: Showdown (Test Server) app on Steam. This gives you the opportunity to test new content and features we have been developing for quite some time now. Please use this opportunity to provide us with your feedback and report bugs you may encounter. In addition, please find the known issues of this initial release further below in the change-log.
Every player will start his progression at the beginning of Tier 3 (Rank 67), and will receive 6,666$ as start credit to allow testing the new content and features right away. The Test Server will at first only feature day time missions. Night time missions will be re-enabled at a later time.

Patch 1 Highlights

• 5 weapons with sniper scopes for long, medium and short-range
• 2 tactical grenades (Flash Bomb, Poison Bomb)
• 12 new Traits
• 11 new Hunter outfits
• Improved map readability and changes to level architecture in boss areas
• Fall damage
• Inventory slot refactoring
• Rebalanced player footstep audio
• Updated Bloodline screen

Additional rewards for target banishment
Changes to banishing and PvE rewards should increase the incentive to take on the bosses instead of camping while somebody else does the dirty work. A completed banishing will now fully restore your health, and give your Hunter additional health chunks (if your Hunter has room on their health bar). Additionally, killing, banishing, and extracting with at least one bounty token from a target now provides a post-mission bonus of 25 bounty, called Clean Sweep.

Bloodline screen refactoring
We have improved the Bloodline screen to better see your overall progress and how much you need to play for the next rank-up, where the Tier gates for unlocking new types of recruits are, recent and upcoming equipment unlocks, and a summary of your last match and its highlights. We have also made it easier to understand when you have unspent points or new gear to check out.

Clue defender
AI will now spawn randomly and much closer around clue positions to provide an additional challenge when tracking clues.
Developer note: AI may spawn around the clue locations, and the combinations of AI will be randomized. It's also possible for audio traps such as raven flocks to spawn nearby in some cases.

Fall damage
Hunters will now take damage when jumping/falling from high walls, ledges, and rooftops.
Hunters will take fatal damage when falling too far (for example, from church towers or high roofs).

Inventory system refactoring
Weapons are now categorized as large, medium, or small and have been redistributed across these three categories. By default, Hunters only have one large and one small weapon slot. If a Hunter equips a medium weapon in their first slot, the second slot will upgrade from small to medium.

Map readability
Compound layouts have been changed to make boss arenas harder to successfully camp and provide more defensive options for players who take out a target. Some spawn areas have also been adjusted to provide cover and reduce your chances of being seen at the mission start.

Developer note: We focused our efforts on several areas including changes to problematic or unbalanced locations with a specific focus on reducing camping and providing more cover and opportunity for players who engage boss targets. We will continue to monitor feedback and make adjustments in the future.

New arsenal
With this update we are adding three sniper scope attachments across five sniper rifle variants of existing weapons, as well as two consumables, and one tool:

• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Sniper (rifle with long scope)
• Nagant M1895 Deadeye (pistol with short scope)
• Sparks LRR Sniper (rifle with long scope)
• Vetterli 71 Deadeye (rifle with short scope)
• Winfield 1873 Marksman (rifle with medium scope)
• Updated Mosin-Nagant M1891 model
• Updated Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez model
• Updated Mosin-Nagant M1891 Bayonet model

• Flash Bomb (blinding flashbang)
• Poison Bomb (creates a cloud of poison gas which causes damage over time, similar to the spider’s poison attack)

• Spyglass (tool)

New Traits
With this update, we are also adding 12 Traits:

• Bulletgrubber (replaces Pump Jockey trait): You can reload mid-clip without losing the chambered bullet on certain weapons
• Bulwark: Reduce the damage from explosions by 20%.
• Deadeye Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a short scope (Deadeye variants)
• Iron Sharpshooter: Remain in iron sights after firing a shot while using bolt-action rifles
• Iron Devastator: Remain in iron sights between shots using shotguns
• Kiteskin: Reduce damage from falling by 50%
• Marksman Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a medium scope (Marksman variants)
• Sniper Scopesmith: Remain in scope view after firing a shot while using any weapon with a long scope (Sniper variants)
• Resilience: Get revived with one full health chunk
• Steady Aim: Sway settles over 12 seconds with scoped rifles
• Steady Hand: Sway settles over 12 seconds with scoped pistols
• Salveskin: Health Chunks damaged by fire heal faster to their full amount

PvP kill rewards
We are adding a tier-based PvP kill reward system in order to discourage hunting new players (white shirts) and instead focus on veteran players.
Hunters will now get:

• 100 XP for killing a Tier 1 Hunter
• 500 XP for killing a Tier 2 Hunter
• 1000 XP for killing a Tier 3 Hunter

General Updates

AI

General changes:

• AI is less likely to fall off cliffs during melee attacks now
• All basic AI and bosses (except for the Butcher) can now be reliably set on fire
• Improved the reactions for Grunts and Armored when hit. This should result in hits being more reliable and reduce the chance of the AI striking at a player as soon as they are hit
• Increased draw-distance of AI to support the longer sniper combat distances
• Increased the size of the Hive's defensive swarm
• Spider is now less likely to leave its lair by accident and die outside

Enemy AI specific changes:

Butcher:

• Added a cooldown on hit reactions to avoid trapping him in a loop with continuous attacks
• Improved his attack validation to prevent him from hitting players through walls
• Improved chasing and retreat behavior to make him harder to exploit
• Improved targeting of his burning oil ranged attack
• Increased resistance to melee attacks
• Slightly reduced damage and range of his final strike when dying

Hellhounds:

• Head hit points have been increased to make it harder to kill with headshots from weak weapons
• Improved locomotion and hit reaction animations to be more reliable and snappy
• Improved reactions - Hellhounds can now see and hear players at a greater distance. They will also no longer attack in a straight line making them more of a challenge
• Improved the group behavior to avoid them getting stuck when retreating
• Improved the search behavior when the player is unreachable

Meathead:

• Decreased the health by 25%
• Improved his attack validation to prevent him from hitting players through walls
• Improved the rage behavior when he is aggro'ed without having a visible target
• Increased the range at which leeches will sense players by 50%

Audio

Developer note: We appreciate your very detailed audio feedback and suggestions. While we might not be able take all of it into account, we will continue working to improve the audio experience of Hunt: Showdown. Keep it up! .

Improved Audio Consistency

Fixed audio events and actions which sounded too different depending on perspective or situation.
This includes a pass on player and teammate footsteps and adjusted attenuations for animal attractors listening from indoor and outdoor.

Improved Audio Readability

Fixed audio events, enemies, and actions which had missing or underwhelming acoustic feedback. This includes being on fire, getting hit, and hitting enemies as well as enhancements on the AI cast condition tells. Adjusted audio events which were too prominent, or that got in the way of gameplay and tuned these down to be less intrusive. This includes the extraction timer, low health heartbeat, and some boss status stingers.

Improved Audio Realism

Some audio events were enhanced to realistically reflect the actual loudness of a sound and the environment where it is occurring. This includes the occlusion behavior, so sound being muffled behind a wall or less audible when underground, reverb adjustments for barns and boss arenas, as well as gunshot reflection adjustments.

Gunplay

• Added a new medium sway pattern alongside rifle and pistol sway, which is now used by all rifles with bayonets and all pistols with buttstocks while aiming down sights.

Developer note: Rather than just two, this third type now allows us to make rifles with bayonets more accurate and pistols with buttstocks less accurate rather than having to pick the other extreme.

• All sniper scopes, iron sights for bolt-action rifles, and iron sights for pump-action shotguns zoom out between shots now

• Ammo boxes now grant slightly less ammunition
• Bombs and explosives will no longer detonate and will be consumed when thrown into water.
• Bullet impacts now create a stronger stimulus. This will increase the aggro radius and affect AI and animals at a greater distance
• Changed the recoil kick pattern on all single-action revolvers to take re-cocking the hammer after each shot into account
• Compact bullets are now more powerful and bleed less power over distance
  • Increased damage of Winfield rifles
  • Increased damage of Caldwell Conversion pistols
  • Increased damage of Nagant M1895 pistols

• Damage values of all weapons against Hunters have been returned from 100HP to 125HP now that all Hunters start with 150HP on recruitment

Developer note: With this change Hunters have become slightly more survivable by default, but they can no longer boost their health to get a stronger advantage. In a nutshell, while overall health went up, so did the damage Hunters take from weapons, resulting in a very similar gun experience.

• Decreased the zoom for iron sights on all weapons to make room for the new sniper scopes

Developer note: Holding the fire button down after shooting suppresses this mechanic, so you can confirm your kill first.

• Decoys are now more reliable in terms of damaging enemies and destroying lanterns
• Dusters and items that attack using fists now consume a lot less stamina, making them very economic choices against groups of enemies
• Ammo pool increased for some weapons:
  • Caldwell Conversion pistol extra ammo increased from 18 to 24
  • Caldwell Conversion Chainpistol extra ammo increased from 18 to 24
  • Vetterli 71 Karabiner extra ammo increased from 12 to 19
  • Vetterli 71 Karabiner Bayonet extra ammo increased from 12 to 19
  • Winfield M1873C extra ammo increased from 15 to 22
  • Winfield M1873 extra ammo increased from 15 to 22
  • Winfield M1873 Swift extra ammo increased from 15 to 22
  • Winfield M1873 Talon extra ammo increased from 15 to 22

• Fusees can now set enemies on fire when they are hit by them
  
• Increased damage of regular melee attacks for all true melee weapons (e.g Knife, Machete and Cavalry Saber)
  
• Minor changes made to the Derringers recoil pattern
  
• Nagant M1895 Silencer bleeds damage much faster over distance now than other weapons using compact bullets
  
• Nitro Express rifle will now receive two bullets instead of one from large ammo boxes
  
• Tweaked heavy and regular melee attack rules for true melee weapons (damage ratio was 3:1, now is 2:1)

Hunters

• Bloodless: No longer provides immunity to bleeding but halves the bleeding damage received over time
• First Aid Kit no longer stops the Hunter from burning
• Footstep sounds have been fully retuned to encourage players be more active when close to enemy Hunters (overall audio range reduction)
• Jumping now costs 20 Stamina to reduce bunny hopping (you can still continue jumping even when the bar is empty, but will be fatigued as normal)
• Massive refactor of player stats system to kill a number of health-related bugs
• Poison damage now results in a much stronger on screen effect and reduces peripheral vision
• Quartermaster: Now upgrades the second weapon slot from small to medium, allowing you to equip one large and one medium weapon instead of two large weapons
• Vitality Shot no longer removes burning effect
• Water footstep visual effect size is now linked to depth of the water and speed of the Hunter
• You are now allowed to use dark sight while waiting for other Hunters
• You are now allowed to use in-game voice communication while waiting for other Hunters

We have drastically increased the amount of possible Hunter names making it less likely for players to get hunter recruits with the same names over and over again.

• The number of possible American, English, French and German recruit names increased
• We have added 3 new nationalities with similar number of names. Now our Hunters can have Irish, Scottish or Scandinavian names.

Meta

Hunters

• Additional names added to the pool for new hunter recruits
• All recruited hunters now start with 150 health regardless of tier

Developer note: With this change, we want to normalize the gameplay advantage higher Tier Hunters had. Players no longer need to grind for health before they have a fair chance in PVP encounters. We hope this makes players become more active and engage more with the mission rather than farming points only. In essence, buying health now is a replenishment rather than a boost mechanic.

• Increased the base cost for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Hunter recruits:
   Tier 1: $ 0  Tier 2: $ +100  Tier 3: $ +250

• Improvements made to the equipment for new recruits. This should decrease the chances of nonsensical loadouts such as multiple melee weapons
  
• Tier 0 recruits now come with two vitality shots instead of one

Menu

• Added tooltips with additional details about ammunition and damage types in the Arsenal and Store when hovering over the icons
• Added additional hints to the loading screen
• Weapon damage bars in the Arsenal and Store now also display numbers. When changing weapon loadouts, players will now only see a list of compatible weapons for that slot

Store

New equipment added:

• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Sniper for 1340$ (Rank Unlock 95)
• Nagant M1895 Deadeye for 34$ (Rank Unlock 34)
• Sparks LRR Sniper for 330$ (Rank Unlock 53)
• Vetterli 71 Karabiner Deadeye for 135$ (Rank Unlock 65)
• Winfield 1873C Marksman for 69$ (Rank Unlock 38)
• Flash Bomb for 15$ (Rank Unlock 23)
• Poison Bomb for 25$ (Rank Unlock 39)
• Spyglass for 15$ (Rank Unlock 12)

Equipment unlock rank changes:

• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez (Rank Unlock moved from 77 to 49)
• Vetterli 71 Karabiner (Rank Unlock moved from 46 to 35)
• Winfield M1873 (Rank Unlock moved from 35 to 26)

New traits added:

• Bulletgrubber for 6 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 69)
• Bulwark for 6 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 87)
• Deadeye Scopesmith for 4 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 42)
• Iron Sharpshooter for 5 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 96)
• Iron Devastator for 4 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 66)
• Kiteskin for 3 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 27)
• Marksman Scopesmith for 4 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 57)
• Resilience for 4 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 21)
• Sniper Scopesmith for 4 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 75)
• Salveskin for 2 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 12)
• Steady Aim for 6 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 78)
• Steady Hand for 5 Upgrade Points (Rank Unlock 51)

Trait unlocks rank changes:

• Fanning (Rank Unlock moved from 87 to 36)
• Greyhound (Rank Unlock moved from 34 to 18)
• Packmule (Rank Unlock moved from 48 to 30)
• Quartermaster (Rank Unlock moved from 24 to 45)

Price changes:

• Caldwell Conversion Uppercut price increased from 175$ to 275$
• Crown + King Auto-5 price increased from 166$ to 266$
• Concertina Bomb price reduction from 35$ to 15$
• Dolch 96 price increased from 190$ to 490$
• Dolch 96 Precision price increased from 280$ to 720$
• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Avtomat price increased from 999$ to 1800$
• Mosin-Nagant M1891 price increased from 478$ to 900$
• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Bayonet price increased from 488$ to 985$
• Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez price increased from 378$ to 478$
• Vetterli 71 Karabiner Bayonet price increase from 105$ to 165$
• Antidote Shot price increase from 11$ to 25$
• Stamina Shot price increase from 5$ to 25$
• Vitality Shot price increase from 20$ to 25$

Performance profile tool which can be enabled in the HUD options menu

• The tool will display a basic set of data on the top right of the HUD with FPS, frame time, main thread, and render thread time as well as current ping.
• This will allows us to gather some specific information from Hunters who experience performance issues, and provides Hunters with the option to check their performance individually.

Service changes

Softening the loss of hunters due to technical difficulties
We added a feature which will prevent players from losing Hunters due to irregular disconnects. This system will return a hunter to its pre-match state if certain conditions (maintenance, server crashes, invalid anti-cheat kicks, client crash mid-mission and during loading, etc.) apply.

UI changes

• Added mission countdown timer to in-game map
• Added stance indicator on HUD when the player is crouched
• Added out-of-breath indicator on the HUD when player is out of stamina for either sprinting or melee attacks
• Ammo pickups no longer showing percentage and now displays actual number of bullets collected