Gold Hunter News

I'll get back to you with the next dev blog. It's been 3 weeks since the last dev blog and a lot has happened since then. This dev blog is not about the functions and programming this time, but about level design.

The last few weeks the map has been worked on at full speed. And today I want to show you the progress. But before I show you any more details, I'll explain very briefly how this came about.

Since we have already switched to Unreal Engine 5, we also considered how this should be implemented with the map. Due to the switch to the new engine, the old map with the content could unfortunately not be taken over. There were 2 options to consider.

Either you would have taken the old map and filled it with new content, or you would have invested a little more time and created a new map. The decision fell on the new map and that's what today's dev blog is about.

Here are a few details and dates to give you a better idea.
The old map had about 16 square kilometers and up to 12 claims were planned. The largest claim was claim 7 and was about 100x100m in size.

Now the data for the new card. The new map will have approximately 68 square kilometers and 14 claims are already planned, but each claim is still divided into parcels. Each plot is 100x100m and there are already over 600 plots in total. Compared to the old map, it would be over 600 claims. I think you can see a clear difference.

The length of the roads that have already been laid is currently over 25 kilometers and the rivers are over 21 kilometers long. There will also be a port, a train station and many more places. This also includes an old gold mining town.

And another info, the whole map is using voxels, means it would be theoretically possible to dig everywhere and do terraforming.

An important part that plays a big role is the issue of performance.
And I can tell you, the performance is just great. On this large 68 square kilometer map, the performance is significantly better compared to a map of 500 x 500 meters in the same engine. Both cards have the same comparison value, relatively empty condition. The landing time on the new large map is less than 10 seconds.

This was also tested in the team, so here is some information. With a "Geforce 1660 Super" graphics card you can achieve an average FPS of 75 FPS on "High" graphics settings and this graphics card is one of the older models from 2019. This means that you can also play comfortably on older graphics cards.

I think pictures say more than any long text, so here are a few pictures.
All images are a preview of what is to come but is still subject to change. The map is a work in progress and not complete.

The image below shows the size of the card. Below the lake is about the size of the old map.



Here you can see the view of the city. The train station and the port will be on the other side of the river.





This picture shows the offshore area, which can also be used later. In this area alone there are over 200 pitches waiting for you.



There are very large rivers, even some with islands.



Of course, the desert area should not be missing, that's where the "desert mining" takes place.



Now the following pictures from different views and maybe you can see a spoiler for an upcoming feature.

















You can always check the current status in the Unreal Engine 5 Roadmap.

Link to UE5 Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/k0nYI1tG/roadmap-ue5

After a successful test on the experimental version, this version will appear on stable a few weeks later. After that, additional functions and mechanics will be integrated in each update.

If you want to be part of the further development, I recommend the live stream on Twitch. The streams take place regularly from Monday to Friday, the language is basically German. However, you can also ask questions in English, which I will be happy to answer.

https://www.twitch.tv/goldhuntermp

Well, that should have been it for today.
If you have any further questions or feedback, feel free to write in comments or with us on Discord.

https://discord.gg/goldhunter

Herewith I report to you with the next dev blog. A few weeks have passed and you probably want to know what has been accomplished during this time.

The switch to Unreal Engine 5 is progressing well, great progress is being made.
As you probably already know, we have arrived at phase 3, the last and decisive phase in the changeover.

Once this phase is complete, the update will be released on the Experimental Version.
Unfortunately, I can't tell you how long that will take. It's hard to estimate, so far I haven't encountered any major problems, so I'm making faster progress than I thought.

You can always check the current status in the Unreal Engine 5 Roadmap.

Link to UE5 Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/k0nYI1tG/roadmap-ue5


After a successful test on the experimental version, this version will appear on stable a few weeks later. After that, additional functions and mechanics will be integrated in each update.

The main thing that will interest you is the multiplayer, since it still causes some problems in the current version on Steam.

In the meantime I can tell you that the functions already implemented in Unreal Engine 5 work very well. Both single player and multiplayer. This is already a great success.

Many features have been worked on over the last few weeks, including the shop, shopping, the new inventory system and much more.

What you can also look forward to is the new map in the game. It will be bigger and therefore offer many more possibilities. But I don't want to reveal too much yet, let yourself be surprised.

I think screenshots say more than any long text, so here are a few screenshots.
All screenshots are a preview of what is to come, so ongoing.

Here you can see a picture of the shop. In this shop you can buy all the important items that you need for the gold search.



Of course you don't want to do everything on foot, so there is a large selection of different vehicles.



So that you don't run out of fuel on the way and you get stuck, you can do something good for your vehicle at the gas station.



Overview of the inventory system. You can now also remove and swap clothes.



There is also a new feature in the game that many of you have been asking for.
This will be the interaction in third-person mode.



The tablet is already in the works and will later offer various apps. Be it an online order, administration of the company, weather, gold price and much more.



There is also a clothing store to give you more choice.



And finally a picture of the upcoming town hall, where you can register and manage your company.



At this point, a big thank you goes out to our community mods, who always take the time to find bugs and report them directly. So I can fix the reported errors directly and we can then guarantee you a more pleasant gaming experience right from the start.

If you want to be part of the further development, I recommend the live stream on Twitch.
The streams take place regularly from Monday to Friday, the language is basically German.
However, you can also ask questions in English, which I will be happy to answer.

https://www.twitch.tv/goldhuntermp


Well, that should have been it for today.
If you have any further questions or feedback, feel free to write in comments or with us on Discord.

https://discord.gg/goldhunter

So, I'm getting back to you with the next dev blog.

Since about 4 weeks I am busy with the change to the Unreal Engine 5.
There are 3 phases planned before the update will be released as an experimental version.

In the meantime we have already reached phase 3, phase 1 and 2 are already finished.
You can check the current status at any time via the following link.

https://trello.com/b/k0nYI1tG/roadmap-ue5


Already now you can see the advantages of the change and first successes have been achieved.
All mechanics used in the game are being completely redeveloped.
Some of the new mechanics have already been completed, as can also be seen in the roadmap.

The next update will take place as soon as phase 3 is completed. In this phase, not everything will be implemented as it was before. But at least all important basic techniques, so that every player can already take a look at the new update.

After successful testing on the Experimental version, a few weeks later this version will be released on Stable. After that, more features and mechanics will be integrated in each update.

The change to Unreal Engine 5 is running smoothly so far, but unfortunately I can't give you a date when the next update will be released. But I can recommend you to just keep an eye on the roadmap.

What you can already look forward to is that we will also integrate many improvements or new features.

There are clear differences in the graphics area. But that is only one of the advantages.



The physics just feel a lot better, noticeable especially with the vehicles.

Physic Vehicles Unreal Engine 4

Physic Vehicles Unreal Engine 5

One of the new features include an inventory system, which simplifies general use and makes multiplayer interactions with other players a lot easier. Unfortunately, I can't give you more detailed information about it today, because the system is still in a very early stage. It is only a draft.

On the picture are the slots for clothes on the left and the slots for items on the right.



The main menu has also been completely redesigned. It will be much clearer for the player. Here are a few pictures, but the menu is only a draft, the interface will still change significantly.



If you want to be there for the further developments, I recommend you to watch the livestream on Twitch. The streams take place from Monday to Friday, language is German, but you can also ask questions in English, which will be answered.

https://www.twitch.tv/goldhuntermp


So, that should be it for today. I wish you a nice weekend.
If you have any further questions or feedback, feel free to post them in the comments or join us on Discord.

https://discord.gg/goldhunter

So fast it can go, I'll get back to you. I hope you had a good start into the new week. In the meantime, half of the week is already over and we'll soon be heading back to the weekend.

This morning we had a livestream, where unexpected problems occurred.
We are currently working with the Unreal Engine 4.26.2 and have been using it for a very long time.
Until now, it was actually clear that there are no more updates coming from the Unreal Engine, because this version is already over 3 years old.

However, a few days ago there was an update that affected our current Unreal Engine version. Since we rely on some plugins, like voxel, vehicle system, etc., they have to be compatible with our version as well. Unfortunately, most plugin creators only support 3 versions. Since there is now the 5.2, we are with our version no longer in the range where we can still expect updates.

In today's livestream it was already stated that at least 2 plugins will no longer receive an update with our version. Unfortunately, this leads to the fact that we have no other option than to get a newer version. This step was actually only in the later development possibly planned, as this also brings a lot of advantages.

We also had a meeting a few minutes ago, in which all possibilities were collected, discussed and we decided to switch.
This means that we will integrate our project on a new Unreal Engine version.
Unfortunately there is no other possibility, we have to make this switch so that the game can get updates in the future. Due to this decision, the already published roadmap from the previous post is invalid.

To avoid such a step in the future, we will build the project on our own source files of the Unreal Engine. This will give us the opportunity to avoid any compatibility issues at any time. This will avoid such errors or problems in the future. And this will allow us to decide for ourselves if and when we want to receive updates provided by the Unreal Engine.

Unfortunately, this is also a very time-consuming step, because we cannot simply copy the project to the new version. We can copy items, objects and vehicles, but all modules and functions have to be rebuilt.

Of course we will take you with us on this way. In the live streams you can see the progress and there are also various pictures and videos posted on all social networks. So we can feed you regularly with information.
Starting tomorrow, we will start directly with Unreal Engine 5.2 in the livestream and make the first preparations for all further steps.

Of course, everyone is interested to know if this will delay the next update and the answer is definitely yes. As mentioned above, unfortunately we have no other way to deliver further updates for the game in the future. Unfortunately, we can't say a time frame, as this can't be estimated yet. But as soon as we can say something more precise, you will be the first to know.

One thing I can tell you already, as soon as the first modules run stable, like character, vehicles, multiplayer and savegame, we will publish this on our experimental version on Steam, so you can get a first impression.

Otherwise, that's it for today, I wish you a pleasant rest of the week and see you in the next livestream.

It has been one year since the release of the Early Access version of Gold Hunter.
A lot of energy and time has been put into the project and we still have a lot planned.
First of all, we would like to thank all players for their support, be it in the form of suggestions, bug reports and livestreams. This is what makes the game unique and
allows us to design the game partly according to the players.

There have been many ups and downs in the past, all of which we have been able to overcome so far.
In the end, that's what makes the project and also makes us strong for future tasks.

Live Streams

Currently I am still a bit sick, but I hope that this will improve in the near future. From the 15th of June I plan to start regular developer livestreams again. That means, again dev streams from monday to friday and there will be as usual on friday evening the talk stream. the talk stream. In the talk stream we talk about news, answer your questions and if an update is planned, the changes will be shown and the update will be released afterwards.

Updates

The next planned update should come this month. Unfortunately I can't give an exact date yet. In this update the focus is on multiplayer, gold balance and general bug fixes. There will be no further system and enhancements yet, because I lost some time due to my illness.

But by popular demand from the community, the Experimental version will be back. For you as a player, this means that we will bring future updates to "Experimental" first and this can be tested extensively.

Since all players will have access to this version, a large number of players can filter out the last bugs in the shortest possible time and we can fix them.

After 1-2 weeks the version can then come to the "stable", ie standard version of the game. This means that we don't only have a small group of players who can test the update before it is actually released, but every player can test it.

Once the next update is released, there will also be an update every week on Friday if necessary. This is to get back into the rhythm of being able to provide an update within a short period of time.

Roadmap 2023

We still have over 6 months to release various updates this year.
In this time there will also be one or the other new system/module in the game.
To give you a little foretaste, I'll mention a few points here.

■ more vehicles
■ tank system
■ company system (employee-, vehicle- and rights management)
■ power system (generators, cables, etc.)
■ water system (pumps, hoses, etc.).

These are just a few modules that will be waiting for you.

Social Networks

Another point, are the social networks. Unfortunately, these have been used very rarely in the past. On Discord or Steam news and announcements are published, but you can provide much more. Be it regular news, teasers on future updates and much more.

In addition, other networks such as Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. were very neglected.
But this should change in the future and we want to fill these channels with regular content.

So, that should be it for today's article. We hope that we can answer many of your questions.
If you still have questions, please feel free to ask us.

Otherwise, we wish all players a nice weekend and see you at the next livestream.