Test Phase #5 - Patch #2

Hunters,

We are happy to announce our latest content update for Hunt: Showdown, Patch #2. In the last few days, during E3, we revealed a number of awesome new features that are coming to the game. Over the next few weeks, we plan to release additional content patch that will focus on different aspects of what was revealed during E3, such as the crossbow, the water devil and so much more! Check out our updated roadmap for more detail on our upcoming content: www.huntshowdown.com/roadmap. We will announce more details for the next patch soon!

Now, let’s talk about the all the wonderful additions we have for you today:

Developer note: For this test phase we will be making a copy of the recent profile from live however we will make some slight changes:

• Players that are Rank1 to 66 will be updated to Rank 67 and those between Rank 68 to 74 will be increased to Rank 75 (this includes Prestige players)
• Starting balance will be set to $5000
• Current hunters will be wiped

Version: v0.269
SteambuildID:2861346
Client patch size:~2gb

Highlights

• Dark Sight Boost – Allows you to see other Hunters within a certain proximity for a limited duration once you have picked up the Bounty
• New Gear - Hunters can now equip the new Flare pistol and Hive bomb as well as find and pick up bear traps around the map (watch your step)
• New traits – Added the “Tomahawk” and “Beastface traits. Further details under “Hunter” section of these patch notes
• Death screen – Does exactly what it says on the tin! Shows the details of your cause of death.
• “Add Friend” button – Send a friend request to the partner of your most recently played match
• Looting Hunters – Interact with dead hunters to loot a small amount of ammo or replenish a single consumable
• “Rise Up Dead Man” – Added the original Hunt Humming theme to the main menu (now everyone hum along with us…Hmm Hmm Hmm Hmmmmmm)
• Mute VOIP on death – Option to disable the ability to hear other players through VOIP when your hunter has died (currently not functioning on the Test server)
• Hunter poses – New unique idle animation for Hunters (main menu models)
• Faster loading – Improved initialization and level loading times

Dark Sight Boost

Dark sight boost is a new mechanic that we are introducing to encourage players to track/kill the boss and extract with the precious Bounty. The Boost temporarily upgrades Dark Sight when carrying the Bounty. This upgrade allows the Bounty carriers to spot nearby enemy hunters within a certain distance regardless of their location (behind walls or buildings, in trees, etc.)

• Enemy hunters are displayed as hazy outlines, and depending on how they move, this outline will give you a rough idea of where your foes are
• The Boost is limited to 20 seconds. This timer will start automatically when you enter Dark Sight and will stop when you leave
• This will give the Bounty carriers a chance to plan their escape route more effectively and tackle ambushes quickly

Developer note: We have introduced Dark Sight Boost as an additional incentive for players to complete the mission objective (find/kill the boss and extract with the Bounty). We have observed that players often feel taking down the boss leaves them at a disadvantage, and that if they do, they are then a sitting duck in the boss arena with other hunters camping the exits. Dark Sight boost is our first step at attempting to break this up by giving those that dare to take on the boss a fair chance at getting out alive. With this change, we anticipate that other players will now be more likely to press the attack in an attempt to force their way inside the boss arena before the Bounty is ready for pickup.

Dark Sight Boost is a game changer for those that pick up the Bounty. Those outside the boss arena will now be at a disadvantage meaning the Hunter will easily become the hunted!

Death Screen

With this update we are also introducing the Death screen. This screen will appear after you have been downed or when you lose your hunter. This screen will display a number of different pieces of information to help you understand your most recent death.

• Event types:
  • Killed by another Player
  • Killed by AI
  • Death from falling
  • Death by environment

• Other details:
  • Name, ranked and prestige level of the hunter that killed you
  • The weapon used
  • Distance
  • Confirmation of a headshot (if applicable)
  • Details on if you were killed through a wall

Developer note: Hunt: Showdown is all about the lack of information and how players have to consider all tells in the world to paint a picture of what is happening around them – from nearby footsteps and barking dogs, to crows being triggered as well as distant gunshots/explosions. Players should never fully know how many players are left in the match. This ensures the high level of tension as well as adds a healthy level of paranoia to the game. However, each round in Hunt is also a competitive match with clear objectives and a limited time to complete them in. As such we need to find a good balance between depriving the player of information while still communicating essential details about what is happening in-game to add meaning to your actions.

This Death screen, combined with the recent addition of name banners for those that pick up and extract with the Bounty, are steps we are taking to make the game feel more personal and show that your actions matter more. While the banners were seen as a controversial addition, it has added a lot to this personal feeling we are trying to accomplish. With the death screen specifically, revealing the mystery of how you died will hopefully reduce frustration from unexpected deaths. We are very interested to hear your feedback on these combined features so please head over to the forums or to our feedback site and share your thoughts on these additions.

Looting Hunters

This is something we have been asked for a lot and we are now happy to introduce the ability to loot dead hunters. Players can now interact with dead Hunters for a chance to find ammo for their weapons or replenish a single consumable in your inventory.

• Looting will replenish a small number of bullets (significantly less than an ammo box) • Looting will give a 25% chance to replenish a previously used consumable • If you kill a Bounty carrier, you will not receive loot from this Hunter. Moving forward we plan to combine the pickup Bounty and looting abilities to one button press

Developer note: With this addition, we wanted to give players the chance to gain some of their ammo back after an interaction with another Hunter as well as the ability to potentially replenish a used consumable (currently the only way to restock some of your used consumables). It is important to note that we have intentionally set up the looting system to not allow you to loot weapons from dead Hunters, which would result in the remaining survivors running with the best weapons half way through a match. The progression system in Hunt is a solitary one, intentionally kept apart from that the progression of other players to ensure that everyone engages with the system as they rank up and unlock new gear. As a consequence, ammo and consumables restocked from dead players does not actually take away from those players (for example if you were downed and then revived, you will still have all of your ammo and consumables even if someone looted you). Think of this as more of a simulated ammo box sitting on top of a corpse.

New gear

• Bear traps – New world item that can be found around the map and placed as a trap
• Hive Bomb – New consumable item that spawns a hive swarm which seeks out nearby players
• Flare pistol – New tool for battlefield illumination (it also sets things on fire…it’s so much fun!)

General updates

AI

• Hellhounds are now able to split off from their main group and form a new pack in case the leader becomes unreachable
• Improvements made to how hellhounds look at their targets (as if they weren’t scary enough already)
• Armoured health tweaks:
  • Decreased vulnerability to Compact bullets
  • Increased vulnerability to Shotguns

• Hive health tweaks:
  • Decreased vulnerability to Compact bullets
  • Increased vulnerability to Shotguns
  • Increased vulnerability to fire

• AI can now walk through dropped world items, for example dropped lanterns

Audio

• Added an option in the Audio settings to mute incoming VOIP when dead
• Updated the audio effect when Down or Dead to simulate reduced hearing
• Added “Rise Up Dead Man” (humming theme) to the main menu
• Added custom footstep sounds when walking on floating logs in the water
• Added custom footstep sounds when walking on sawdust
• Improved the sounds of footsteps in the water to make them more splashy •
• Added a 2 second delay (give or take a few milliseconds) between the Lightning flash and the thunder to give players a chance to mask loud noises
• Improved weapon attenuation & reflection for better readability in regards to gunfire. Now it should be easier to determine if occurs in the same compound or further away
• Improved the sound of the Hive swarm to make it sound more lethal
• Fixed an occlusion issue that would result in sounds bleeding through the terrain when above or below the boss arena

Gunplay

• Improved network code for melee hit detection (melee with high latency should feel much smoother)
• Improved the usability of throwing consumables when used in quick succession. There is no longer a delay between the idle and throw actions
• Improved the melee hit detection of the Romero 77 Hatchet to better match the angle suggested by the animation
• Some slight tuning to the Winfield M19873C and M19873 (incl. their variants)to set them more apart from each other
  • Winfield M19873C is a lighter weapon so the recoil has been increased
  • Winfield M19873 is overall a bulkier weapon, therefore is harder to keep the sights on target after each shot

Developer Note: The Winfield series of rifles are a solid, competitive weapon for new players and veterans alike, offering a good balance between damage, control, and rate of fire. Weapons in Hunt have a pretty flat balance overall, allowing players with cheap equipment to still be able to compete with more advanced mid to end-game gear. Balance is achieved mostly through damage drop over distance, restricting low caliber weapons to shorter distances. Instead of reducing the damage of the Winfield rifles, we want to make it more of a challenge to hit your target with consecutive shot as well as set each weapon variant apart from the other. We have also increased the cost attached to these rifles (detailed in the “Store” section of these notes). We will continue to monitor the usage of the Winfield and will consider further balance changes for future updates to bring them more in line with the remaining arsenal.

• Added a damage threshold to the shotguns to prevent hits from always causing a bleed effect even at max range
• Jumping now adds additional spread to weapons when aiming down sights to discourage bunnyhopping
• Throwable items now bounce off of walls instead of dropping straight to the ground
• Throwable items such as the dynamite and fusees now align correctly with the surface they land on
• Increased the damage of the Wood Axe bringing it closer to the damage of the Sledgehammer but now causes bleeding damage
• The Derringer now fires each shot separately rather than a burst of 4 bullets
  • The reload animation remains unchanged therefore causing some inconsistencies as it will still reload all four chambers at once. This will be corrected at a later stage

• Increased the damage of the Derringer Bullets
  
• Burst weapons like the Avtomat are set to always fire at least 2 rounds after the initial burst meaning you cannot fire single shots any longer

Hunters

• Added audio when your hunter jumps
• Stamina regeneration cooldown is now properly reset after each jump
• Added the “Tomahawk” trait which allows you to throw world items such as the Wood Axe and Sledgehammer (Just aim and fire!)
• Added the “Beastface” trait which allows you to get closer to animals without setting them off (let’s get sneaky)

Meta

• Hunters now feature new unique idle animations for the equipment and recruitment screens
  • Each weapon comes with its own unique pose making it easier to distinguish between the different types of weapon
  • Animations vary between the different tiers, with higher tier Hunters looking more confident and season in comparison to the lower tiers
  • TL;DR – they look even more badass

• Added additional hints to the loading screen (for example explaining the new Dark Sight Boost feature)
  
• Minor alterations made to the displayed equipment stats to reflect the latest balancing changes

Store

New equipment:

• Flare gun (Tool) – $20 (unlocked at Rank 36)
• Hive Bomb (Consumable)- $50 (unlocked at Rank 73)

Equipment rank changes:

• Concertina bomb – Unlocked at Rank 30 (previously Rank 97)

New traits:

• Beastface - 5 upgrade points (unlocked at Rank 39)
• Tomahawk -2 upgrade points (Unlocked at Rank 33)

Trait changes:

• Packmule changed from 1 upgrade point to 3 upgrade points

Price changes

• Winfield M1873C price increased from 15$ to 22$
• Winfield M1873C Marksman price increased from 69$ to 93$
• Winfield M1873 price increased from 29$ to 78$
• Winfield M1873 Talon price increased from 39$ to 118$
• Winfield M1873 Swift price increased from 49$ to 98$

UI

• Improved background art for in-game banners
• Further improvements made to hunter loadouts
  • You can now browse existing traits even if you do not have enough upgrade points or space left in the traits panel
  • Stacking multiple items – you can now double click an owned item to stack it on top of another of the same type in your hunters loadout

• Minor changes to button alignment in the main menu
  
• Additional banners added to help new players understand what to do in the game
  
• Additional banners added to highlight the new functionality of the Dark Sight Boost when the Bounty has been picked up
  
• Advanced players can disable the additional banners through the game options menu