A series of updates have been implemented into the upcoming Hunt: Showdown game. The alpha is going on now to stress test servers, pinpoint areas of needed for optimization, and more. The developers behind the title are working towards total transparency when it comes to their players and the game’s development process.
In recent weeks, the team has tackled this very “stressful” time, a time that they recognize is the critical first impression period that have to give to interested fans. “It takes a lot of time and effort to get the game up and running, and you’re trying to convince people this game is a cool idea. The only way to know is to get it out there and have people play it,” said one update regarding the tweaks made based off of streamer feedback. “There’s a lot to do,” and they definitely got started.
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Earlier in the week, the game experienced some serious server issues:
“We have to fix matchmaking and a lot of performance issues, and then you’re getting into the battle over prioritizing all the things we want to put in the game versus making it stable. We have a list of things to do, and it is quite large. It is a big challenge.”
The hotfixes are being worked on as we speak for those still experiencing connective issuers, but they are actively looking at “tying up loose ends” to make the game’s build as stable as possible. With it being still in Alpha stage, a certain level of leniency is afforded. This is, afterall, the purpose of testing periods: to get all of these kinks out of the way before the full launch.
“So of course we are playing the game a lot. Repeating and testing everything and tuning everything: tuning the economy, tuning the guns, tuning the monsters. So we’re focused on three things I guess: working on performance, getting in as many features as we can, and we have to look at the community feedback and plan for the future too. We have to start making new maps and we already have all these brainstorms about maps and AI and everything, so we have to work on all that at the same time.”
Also included in the most recent update is alterations to the Bloodline. Instead of starting all the way over, players can now choose their spawn point. For the FULL NOTES, you can check out the patch update below, via the Steam page:
Known Issues
- US-Central is currently NOT available and will be added at a later stage. Please do not select this server – Stick with US East or West
- 7 missions will appear in the contract page. Missions 5,6 and 7 are not selectable
- We recommend not changing the “system spec” option in the graphic settings while in a match as this can cause the game to crash
- Depth of Field setting will reset to on even when switched off
- During the banishing phase, you may experience some large FPS drops/spikes
- Audio for the extraction points may not function correctly when other hunters are in range
- Missions may not appear correctly on the contract page. If this happens, please restart your client and try again
- Case of white balls
Highlights
- Bloodline has been reset
- Balancing pass made to the AI difficulty
- Balancing pass made to the equipment (weapons, tools, and consumables)
- Added the ability to select your spawn point
- Added the ‘Louisiana Case File’ book to the library
- Improvements made to performance as well as the addition of some graphic settings
- Improvements made to the matchmaking process
- Added region matchmaking feature (first iteration)
Changes
- Slightly increased movement speed when using ladders
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug that protected hunters who have been revived from bleeding damage
- Fixed an issue which resulted in an incorrect death animation to play when a hunter is killed
- Fixed an issue which resulted in an active extraction timer being reset when a Hunter died or disconnected
- Fixed an issue which caused your Hunter to stand up after being crouched after aiming down sights
- Fixed a bug that caused the “low health audio” cue to not function correctly after being revived
- Fixed a bug that would result in the Mithridatist trait not correctly applying its effect
- Fixed an issue which resulted in the Physician trait unintentionally lowering the time it takes to stop bleeding and/or burning
World
Changes
- Decreased the amount of ammunition received from ammo creates and small ammo packs (Players will still find more compact bullets than other ammo types)
- Extraction zones will generate audio and particles/animation when at least 2 different teams are in proximity (horses become uneasy, boat engines start up)** (see known issues)
- Ladder interaction distance increased slightly to improve ease of use
- Extraction time normalized for solo and teams to 20 seconds (previously 10 seconds for teams)
- Extraction range has been increased by +5m (now has a 15mradius)
- Added additional entrances and exits to some of the compounds
- Improvements made to a number of the boss arenas to give more accessibility options to attackers and defenders
- Improvements made to the randomization of AI placement throughout the map
- Increased the number of player spawn points
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug that resulted in no hit marker being shown when killing animals (dogs, horses, ravens and chickens)
- Fixed a bug that would result in fire not spreading through oil spills correctly
- Kills achieved by shooting explosive barrels will now be tracked correctly
- Barrels can no longer be set off by melee
- Barrels will now react properly to weapons using medium ammo
- Clues will now correctly play effects (audio and visual) even if previously used by another team
- Improvements made to the randomization of clues, ammo boxes and boss locations
- Fixed a number of bugs that would result in not being able to extract from the round
- Fixed a bug that would result in being unable to interact with the bounty when dropped by players that are dead, or have disconnected from the server
- Improvements made to reduce instances of encountering floating objects.
Equipment
Changes
- Increased melee damage for the Nagant M1895 Brawler
- Decreased the damage values for the Rival 78 and Romero hand cannons
- Long bullets can now penetrate thin metal sheets (e.g. rooftops, railings, etc.)
- Reduced the amount of uses on the First Aid Kit from 5 to 3. Increased the use time from 0.8 seconds to 5 seconds
- Increased recoil and sway on Mosin Nagant Avtomat to reduce overall control and make it harder to use at mid-long range
- Reduced the spare ammo capacity for the Nitro Express rifle from 6 down to 4 and increased the recoil (it’s an elephant rifle after all!)
- Nitro Express Rifle will restock less ammunition from supply boxes
- “Aim helper” will now appear when aiming with throw-able consumables, not just when cooking (dynamite, frag bomb, etc.)
- Fusees reduced from 5 to 3 per pack
Bug fixes
- Fixed an issue that would result in rapid fire mode consuming too much ammunition
- Fixed a bug that would result in the auto selection of empty consumable items after certain interactions in game (Dark sight, ladders, etc.)
- Thrown Lanterns will now break windows and fly through them instead of detonating against them
- Fixed a bug that would prevent you from interacting with the axes, hammers, and lanterns
- Fixed a number of instances that would result in issues when performing melee attacks with weapons, tools, and consumable
- Fixed a bug that prevented the vitality shot from correctly stopping bleeding and/ or burning damage effects
- Improvements made to various weapon animations
AI
Changes
- Increased the movement speed of the Grunt and Armored
- Lowered the time it will take the Grunt, Armored and Hive to attack if you run directly at them
- Increased the time that Grunts and Armored will chase Hunters
- Improvements made to how Grunts, Armored and Hive react to sound
- Armored now take less damage from shotguns and melee attacks
- Doubled the health of the Hive
- Increased the size of the defense swarm around the Hive and doubled its damage
- Increased the damage that the Hive’s swarm attack does
- Improvements made to the Hive’s ‘swarm attack (increased damage and duration)
- The butcher now has an increased chance of catching hunters
- AI will now react when a Fusee lands within close proximity
- Improvements made to the way the spider navigates while running on walls/ceilings
- The spiders jump attack can now be interrupted by shooting it as it is about to pounce
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug that caused the swarm from the Hive to persist after the Hive has been killed
- Fixed an issue that would result in not receiving rewards for burning Grunts, Armored or hives to death
- Removed some particle effects from dismemberment in an attempt to mitigate performance drops (frame rate spikes)
- Fixed a bug that would cause the AI to continue to attack dead hunters
- Fixed an issue that caused the hit marker to not display when killing AI
- Fixed an issue which resulted in the Hive dying from any amount of damage to the upper torso
- Fixed a bug that resulted in hunter movement being blocked when trying to pass the body of a dead boss
- Fixed a bug that caused barrels to explode from the Spider’s poison attack and the Hive’s swarm attack
- Fixed a bug that was resulting in the Meathead being able to attack hunters through closed doors
- Fixed a bug that caused the Meathead and its leaches to persist on the map after their death
- Improved cost of AI cast and AI Director on the server to increase overall performance
- AI can now better navigate open doors
- Hell hounds can now be set on fire like the rest of the AI
- Hell hounds will now react correctly to the deaths of nearby AI
- Fixed a bug where the Butcher and Meathead could be exploited in close combat. They should no longer miss when attacking a hunter in close proximity
- Improvements made to the Butchers targeting when using his fire projectile attack
- Hit markers are no longer displayed when firing at the Butcher’s decorative pig head (it’s just a decoy, shoot the body!!)
- Significantly reduced the likelihood of AI spawning in front of you when entering a new area
Meta/UI
Changes
- Players are now notified when they unlock the next Hunter Tier (Tier2 from rank 33 and Tier3 from rank 66), allowing you to recruit veteran Hunters with unique outfits and better starting gear
- Hunters below lvl 25 can no longer be retired
- Reduced the chances of receiving a mid to late game weaponry when recruiting lower tier hunters
- Redistributed the Bloodline XP gained between Hunter levels 26 and 50 to add one more bonus gate players can reach
- Added bloodline Prestige (voluntary reset when reaching max rank; this will grant a unique profile icon for bragging rights later down the line)
- Increased the Hunter Upgrade Points cost for Quartermaster and Doctor to 8.
- Vitality Shot unlock rank changed from 51 to 1
- First Aid Kit unlock rank changed from 1 to 9
- Stamina Shot unlock rank changed from 9 to 19
- Fire Bomb unlock rank changed from 19 to 4
- Dynamite Stick unlock rank changed from 4 to 8
- Updated all equipment preview images in the shop, arsenal and recruitment screens
- Improved shop navigation for easier purchase and management of equipment
- Newly unlocked equipment and upgrades are now highlighted in the Menu until you click on them for the first time
- All weapons and equipment have additional details about their ammo and damage types added to the shop and arsenal
- Support for leaderboard stats added
- Mission Manger updated with additional details of available contracts
Bug fixes
- All unlockable traits are now displayed in the Menu, not just those you have already unlocked
- Improvements made to UI performance
- Improved the stability of matchmaking and added more detailed notifications (when the backend is offline, all servers full, etc.)
Performance
- Added basic performance options to UI – Users can now set High, Med and Low system specs (not currently auto-detected)
- Exposed a number of graphical options to UI (Motion blur toggle, Depth of Field toggle, Anti-Aliasing, Anisotropic Filtering)
- Focused on reducing spikes and stalls that occur during gameplay and smoothing out the FPS generally
- Rebalanced vegetation LOD (level of detail) and view distance ratios across specs to ensure objects are rendered evenly across each spec
- Fixed a large stall that occurred when barrels explode and dismember AI
- Fixed several large stalls that occur when users melee AI that could cause 4-5 seconds of severe frame loss
- Fixed a stall that occurred when dynamite was thrown into concertina wire
- Fixed a desync that occurred when vaulting over objects
- Fixed a large number of stalls caused when loading files at run time that generated invalid file accesses
- Optimized streaming algorithm to more evenly distribute priorities when level has finished loading
- Optimized scene graph traversal (CPU)
- Restored multi-threaded rendering of vegetation and objects
- Fixed a spike that would occur when getting poisoned for the first time
- Fixed a spike that would occur when player takes damage for the first time
- Increased buffer size of decal manager to reduce FPS spikes on the client
- Flash assets are now correctly pre-cached
- Fixed stalls that would occur when AI are being spawned
- Reduced stalls that occurred when players use dark sight for the first time
- Optimized thread balancing to reduce cost on main thread (CPU)
- Enabled object streaming (should help with loading times)
- Removed a number of unused but loaded light textures
- Cleaned up some config files that were competing for priority
- Fixed a number of CPU spikes
- Optimized a number of UI effects
- Fixed a situation where shooting at water or ground would result in high draw calls
- Reduced poly count of water volumes in Cemetery (CPU)
- Removed a number of game changing CVARs that could be set by players
- Fixed a stall that could occur when opening the map for the first time
- Fixed a significant memory leak when players throw fusee
- Fixed issue with omni-directional lights being significantly more expensive than they should be on both CPU and GPU
