Update 1.3

26 Mar 2020Developer post

Source: Steam Community (opens in a new tab)

New AI Variations

We have added two new AI variations to the game. You will now find the Grunt Doctor, who deals poison damage and drops a medical kit after being killed, and the Concertina Armored, covered in concertina wires causing bleeding damage, wandering in the swamps.

New Time of Day: Sunset

The Sun has set in the Bayou, a new time of day is here! You can now explore the swamps in brand new lighting. Depending on how you move through the Bayou, you can use the sun to gain an advantage over your enemies in a fight.

New Equipment

This update features two new weapon variants, the "Martini-Henry IC1 Marksman" and the "Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez Drum", a new tool, the "Decoy Fuses", as well as a new trait, ’’Levering”, allowing lever-action rifles to rapid-fire from the shoulder, giving the Winfield rifles a previously unseen new layer of tactical flexibility at close quarters.

Weapon Changes

The powerful Avtomat rocks a new look and gameplay rework this update, making it harder to control at range with a slightly increased rate of fire and more ammo drain. The update also adds a slight ear ringing effect when you unload your weapons too fast. Additionally, our current damage and projectile system sees a major balancing pass in 1.3 that helps some of the weaker ammo types to keep their damage better up to medium distance. More details can be found further below!

Improved Death Screen and Lobby

Update 1.3 brings a reworked partner inspection screen to the lobby where you are able to look at your fellow Hunters in more detail, as well as a new Death Screen, that additionally displays the enemy player’s hunter and their gear.

New Legendary Content

The Anniversary skin contest winner skin is finally here. We have also added a new Legendary Hunter as well as several additional Legendary Weapons. You can unlock those with Blood Bonds from the in-game menu. Make sure to check them out!

AI

Doctor Grunt

New Grunt AI variation
Carries a medical kit (similar to the ones players can find at resupply stations or randomly in the world) on his back that he drops when killed.
Wields a rusty bone saw that causes poison damage.

Concertina Armored

New Armored AI variation.
Fully entangled in concertina wire, this Armored causes bleeding damage when a Hunter gets too close.
More resistant to melee attacks in general.
Less resistant to all types of bullets.

Audio

Hunter Footsteps

Adjusted the pitch of footsteps to sound slightly higher for teammates and slightly lower for enemies compared to Player footsteps.

Branches

Slightly increased the audible distance of breaking branches that can be found in forest areas.

Arsenal

Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez Drum

An Obrez variant that features the 15 round drum magazine known from the Avtomat variant on this classic bolt-action.
With a 15/0 ammo pool, total ammunition remains the same however, the Obrez Drum does not need to be reloaded during a fight.
Available in the Mosin-Nagant M1891 unlock tree within the Book of Weapons, found between the Mosin-Nagant Sniper and Mosin-Nagant Avtomat variants.

Henry-Martini IC1 Marksman

A Martini-Henry variant with an attached medium-sized marksman scope for increased ranged capabilities.
Available at the end of the Martini-Henry unlock tree in the Book of Weapons.

Decoy Fuses

New tool with three charges.
Mimics a lit explosive when thrown, but does not explode or deal damage after its fuse time.
Can be used to deceive opponents and flush them out of cover.
Can be used to break stalemates by pushing into seemingly hazardous positions.
New unlock option for the Deception tree in the Book of Weapons.

Levering Trait

A new trait that allows lever-action rifles like the Winfield series to rapid-fire when aiming from the shoulder.
Hard to control, but allows shots to be fired at a staggering rate of fire. Levering gives additional flexibility in close range to stand your ground against Shotguns and other rapid-fire weapons.
Like "Fanning" for single-action revolvers, Levering does not work when aiming down sights (ADS).

Gunplay

Reworked Chaos Bomb patterns and added more weapon sounds for it to be more likely interpreted as real gunfights.
Improved handling of successive heavy melee attacks for some bayonet and talon variants.
Improved handling of successive heavy melee attacks for the crossbow.
Derringer, Throwing Knives, Decoys and Blankfire Decoys are now 100% refilled when their tool slot is randomly chosen for resupply upon looting a dead Hunter or using an Item Box. All other items still only receive one extra use per interaction.
Reduced the stamina cost for Heavy Attacks with the Knuckle Knife to allow 6 instead of 4 heavy attacks

Damage-Drop Rework

Balancing pass for weapon projectiles that increases damage-retention over distance based on bullet type:
In general damage drop curves have been smoothened out, resulting in most projectiles losing less damage as they travel.
Compact Bullets have seen the biggest boost, most notably the Winfield rifles, retaining their damage much better at medium to long-distance also resulting in overall increased effective range for headshot kills.
New Compact Pistol Bullet and Medium Pistol Bullet sub-classes have been introduced to better help balance rifles vs. handguns using the same Compact or Medium ammo class.
- So far this was only the case for Long ammo with the Uppercut, which has a stronger damage drop over distance than Long ammo rifles in comparison.
- The new pistol variants help ensure that the headshot range boost does not go through the roof for handguns for those cases where we want to boost rifles.
- Powerful handguns like the Uppercut and Dolch now receive a stronger competition at short to medium distances as they remain largely unchanged when it comes to damage per shot or headshot range compared to their smaller cousins.

Developer Note:
The rework of how projectiles lose damage over distance is a pretty big change, touching most of the weapons in the arsenal in one way or another. However, the actual gameplay changes should be pretty minimal for the majority of these weapons, and only affect those we actually want to boost. The weapons we wanted to benefit the most from this balancing pass are the Winfield rifles and the Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine to boost Compact bullets, as well as the Vetterli Karabiner 71 and Springfield 1866 rifles for Medium bullets. All of these weapons will most noticeably have an increase in their two-tap chest shot capability, which in the case of the Winfield goes from around 25m up to 40m+ meters, making that weapon overall a lot stronger short to mid-range. Headshot range is also buffed quite a bit, placing the Winfield where the Vetterli was before, and the Vetterli going up to long distances of 150m+.

As a secondary goal, most Compact ammo handguns see a slight boost, but that is most noticeable with increased chest shot damage and extra headshot range as well, moving them to where the Winfield was positioned prior. Due to the systemic nature of these balancing changes, most Compact, Medium and Long bullet weapons see a change in some way, except for shotguns, which remain untouched! The detailed list of headshot range changes can be found below.

The Winfield has been struggling to find its place in the meta, being at an awkward spot and getting a lot of pressure from shotguns, semi-automatics, and fanning pistols at short-range as well as being outclassed - damage-wise - by long rifles at longer distances. It was very easy to either push away from a Winfield and fight at range or to close the gap and push in with rapid-fire weapons or shotguns at short-range. By combining the projectile changes with the new Levering trait, we hope that Winfield rifles start living up to their reputation as flexible weapons again. The Winfield rifles can arguably be considered as the first "assault rifles" in history, excelling in a number of different combat scenarios and being a true jack of all trades that complements the other more specialized weapons of the era in the Hunters' arsenal nicely.

Bornheim No.3 and all its variants have their effective headshot ranges increased from 55m to 68m
Bornheim No.3 and all its variants have their damage increased from 65 to 84
Caldwell Conversion Pistol and its Chain Pistol variant have their effective headshot ranges increased from 65m to 84m
Caldwell Conversion Pistol and its Chain Pistol variant have their damage increased from 80 to 104
Caldwell Conversion Uppercut has its effective headshot range decreased from 99m to 96m
Caldwell Pax and its Claw variant have their effective headshot ranges increased from 74m to 86m
Dolch 96 and its Precision variant have their effective headshot ranges increased from 75m to 86m
LeMat Mark II has its effective headshot range increased from 63m to 79m
LeMat Mark II has its damage increased from 75 to 97
Nagant M1895 and its Precision and Deadeye variants have their effective headshot ranges increased from 58m to 73m
Nagant M1895 and all its variants have their damage increased from 70 to 91
Nagant M1895 Silencer has its effective headshot range increased from 37m to 56m
Nagant M1895 Officer and its Brawler variant have their effective headshot ranges increased from 58m to 73m
Nagant M1895 Officer and its Brawler variant have their damage increased from 70 to 91
Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine has its effective headshot range increased from 65m to 92m
Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine has its damage increased from 80 to 104
Sparks LRR Silencer has its effective headshot range increased from 94m to 144m
Sparks LRR Silencer has its damage increased from 136 to 149
Vetterli 71 Karabiner and all its variants have their effective headshot ranges increased from 95m to 167m
Springfield 1866 and all its variants have their effective headshot ranges increased from 150m to 175m
Winfield M1873C Silencer has its effective headshot range increased from 39m to 81m
Winfield M1873C and all its variants have their damage increased from 85 to 110
All other Winfield M1873 variants have their effective headshot ranges increased from 67m to 95m
Winfield M1873 and all its variants have their damage increased from 85 to 110
Nitro Express Rifle has its effective headshot range increased from 95m to 250m (one hit kill capability from an upper torso hit is now around 43m instead of 48m)
Derringer has its damage increased from 65 to 84

Weapon Ear-Ringing

Firing your weapons excessively can cause temporary hearing impairment. The loud gunfire stresses your ears and thus produces a ringing effect that will last for a few seconds.
This is intended as a soft-counter mechanic to spamming Avtomat, Dolch, fanning pistols, levering repeaters, or using other rapid-fire weapons, making you possibly miss some sounds around you or making it harder to keep track of enemy movements while suffering from ear-ringing.
The intention is to encourage players to fire their weapons with careful aim and consider their shots instead of spamming.

Avtomat Rework

The Mosin-Nagant M1891 Avtomat has been re-imagined with an updated look and has also been rebooted gameplay-wise.
Increased rate of fire from 400rpm to 545rpm.
Increased the minimum amount of bullets fired per burst from 2 to 3.
Reduced weapon handling by making recoil harder to control during rapid fire.
Reduced initial accuracy when fired from the shoulder.
When firing a 3-shot burst and force-swapping weapons to cancel firing, the remaining bullets from that burst are lost to avoid players trying to snipe with the weapon.
Reduced the cost slightly (see further below in the Store section).

Developer Note:
The Avtomat has always been a controversial weapon. Someove it, some hate it, or feel it has no place in the game. For us, it is an interesting weapon nonetheless, because it brings something to the table that no other weapons in Hunt's 1895 arsenal provide: Automatic fire. In reality, machineguns were not uncommon at that time, but in the context of Hunt's gameplay, it is quite challenging to balance as it is the only weapon of its kind and usually goes up against much slower firing designs.

With this update, we made a couple of changes to how the gameplay works using the rifle. We want to make the weapon harder to operate with a stronger ammunition drain and increased recoil, while still keeping it devastating in the right hands. The new Avtomat works best up to medium distances of 50 meters, where you have a good chance to place 2 hits on an enemy in a short tap burst. Firing over longer distances is possible of course, but players will have to fight the recoil much more aggressively and most of the time can be lucky to score a single hit per burst. Here is where the ammo drain will become noticeable the most, as the new three-round burst pattern will mean you can do that a meager five times before you run dry. At close range, the changes to the weapon are a bit more mixed: On one hand, the weapon shoots faster allowing you to pour rounds downrange at a faster speed, but on the other hand, it is less controllable overall as that recoil now hits you at a faster interval as well.

We hope that the Avtomat will be seen more as just another powerful choice in the end-game arsenal, just like the Auto-5, Dolch 96 and Nitro Express Rifle, they each come with some balancing drawbacks that allow other weapons to challenge them when exploiting their respective weaknesses. Where the Nitro's weakness is mostly its limited ammo, and the Auto-5's weakness is its limited range, the Avtomat has both of these weaknesses to a certain extent, but still allows for a more tactical deployment in the field overall.

Store

Bornheim No.3

Increased price from $96 to $201

Bornheim No.3 Extended

Increased price from $131 to $306

Bornheim No.3 Match

Increased price from $119 to $224

Mosin-Nagant M1891 Avtomat

Reduced price from $1500 to $1250

New Weapon Added: Mosin-Nagant M1891 Obrez Drum

Added for $350

New Weapon Added: Henry-Martini IC1 Marksman

Added for $173

New Tool Added: Decoy Fuses

Added for $60

Performance

Optimized the Banishment assets
Optimize character spawning (first character spawn stall)

The list of fixed Bugs will be provided with our Live release.

Stability

Client can occasionally crash during gameplay.
Clients can crash or hang on level unload in some rare cases.
Clients can crash on resolution change.
Players may sometimes experience desyncs / rubberbanding issues during gameplay.

Visuals & Audio

Minor animation issues can occur when switching between weapons/items or during exhausted attacks.
In certain small areas reverb is missing or applied where it shouldn't.
Texture / asset streaming is slow sometimes.
Changing and applying another Audio Output Device in Options doesn't work.
Lantern Oil puddle does not have burning audio.
Breathing audio can get stuck on player when crouching, sprinting or jumping
In rare cases, players might see a permanent ghosting effect on the skybox.

Gameplay & AI

Player can get nothing from item box.
If a hunter joins without his primary weapon slot equipped, he/she can't pick up looted weapons from dead enemy hunters.
Poison Bomb doesn't kill ravens and ducks.
Meathead attack can deal too much damage.
Assassin and Spider can get stuck sometimes.
Looting a Hunter in Quickplay can sometimes give no loot at all.
Quad derringer ammunition goes directly into the chamber when interacting with an item box.

UI

Wrong Transaction notification pop up is displayed when not having enough hunt dollars.
Health chunks can't be bought back during matchmaking on the roster tab.
Big health chunks can't be bought back during matchmaking.
Users cannot switch contracts twice in a row on the contract screen because the button doesn't update to ACCEPT.
Summary screen can show negative XP as total instead of 0.
Challenge progress only gets displayed after the challenge count got updated.
Numbers on Profile view can be cut off.
Replacing a consumable with another one won't jump to next free slot.
Outline of team mate changes from blue to red when getting close to revive.
Equipment bar numbers don't always gets updated for the quad derringer after interacting with an item box.
Two HUD indicators for bullets from quad derringer get displayed when replenishing it.
Boss token icon is flickering and doesn't stay in position when moving the camera.
Inspect icon in lobby screen picture switches every time the inspect window gets opened.
HUD instantly disappears when switching from/to the LeMat in shotgun mode.
Missing the "+" icon when unlocking a new weapon in the Book of Weapons.
No pop-up is available for Blood Bonds when completing daily and weekly challenges.
Health regen is calculated ( subtracted ) from damage values in damage history.
Damage history often accumulates damage when ping / packet loss is high.

Death Screen

Death screen: Items/weapons are displayed behind the 'you killed yourself' and 'falling' icon if the player has been downed once before by another player.
The Death Screen always displays "friendly fire" after being revived from friendly fire death.
Friendly fire text is still visible when killing yourself.
Getting killed through poison barrels results in overlapping text.
Getting killed through oil barrels results in overlapping text.
When killed with thrown weapons, the Death Screen only displays item description, item name, distance instead of the actual item and number.
Death through explosive barrels results in wrong item displayed.
Dying to a world item has overlapping text on the Death Screen (saying 'ItemName' e.g.).
Tools and consumables are never shown as contraband items.
Missing graphic and icon when killed with fists.
System messages are sometimes hidden behind UI elements.
Crossbow (and variants) are displayed empty on the death screen (no bolts).
Glass from bottles aren't visible.
Entities in death screen tend to flicker / flash on off a few times.
Numbers on Profile view can be cut off.
Damage history shows any damage that you made to yourself as "killed yourself".
Some death screen strings unnecessarily scroll left/right due to too small text boxes.
Kill view screen gets lighten up when pressing 'Esc'.
Lighting on death screen and weapon position changes after leaving from and returning to the Death Screen.
In Damage History the health bars should be representative like in game.
The "You are burning" message is not getting displayed in death screen.

~The Hunt Team