Poached : Hunt The Hunter News

[p]The second update for 2026! I won't bore you with the blah blah this time, so lets get straight to it:[/p][p]
1. Driving into bushes with your vehicle now destroys them.

2. Enemies can now fire their weapons while crouched.

3. Made weapon wheel & weapon wheel info text more legible and easier to read

4. Fixed issue allowing binoculars to tag an enemy through the terrain.

5. Fixed an issue that caused the vehicle to be on your head when exiting the guest lodge after completing the mission.

6. Added splash damage to exploding enemy vehicles, similar to the damage from exploding your own vehicle. But it won't trigger the same achievement you get for killing enemies by blowing up your vehicle. (But it will still kill them, or you if you get caught in the explosion)

7. Improved appearance of black & white "End Level"/"Death" camera screens by allowing them to include the skybox in its rendering.

8. Improved quality of leaf rustling propagation when moving through foliage.

9. Adjusted the default volume of the vehicle radio to be more balanced, based on recent changes to the third person camera and 3D sound of the radio when driving.

10. Made adjusting the volume slider of the vehicle radio while playing adjust the actual volume in realtime while adjusting, if you are currently listening to the radio while adjusting the slider instead of having to close the menu to hear the change in volume during radio play.

11. Increased enemy urgency when they are searching or investigating a suspicious sound.

12. Fixed numerous small issues in the guest lodge bonus mission such as being unable to shoot through broken windows from the upper floor and other collision volume related issues.

13. Fixed a regression on a previous update, that would in some cased affect a new feature that prevents enemies from standing too close to the enemies of their fallen allies to prevent tactical exploits. This feature is now more robust.

14. Fixed an issue with duplicate stealth managers in Mission 2, 3 & 4 that may or may not have caused some singleton issues, if not just slight performance deficits.

15. Fixed a bug that could cause the "Economize" achievement to be cheated, as Goats were counted as kills, and vantage attacks were counted at 2. So hunting goats all 4 with a knife and then sneaking up on a poacher camp could grant you the 6 kills with only one poacher killed.

16. Improved appearance of breakable beer bottles.

17. Improved R4 & R1 FAL FN weapon textures.

18. Fixed issue with "Headhunter" achievement triggering even if you did not get 10 headshots properly in a row.

19. Fixed a rare & strange bug that would cause U.I. to not work properly only in Mission 4 is Low Environment Quality graphics settings were selected.

20. Tamed HDR bloom to be more realistic and less exaggerated.

[/p][p]Next update coming up probably also in the next few days. As always - thanks for playing! [/p]

This is the first update of 2026! It's not the most massive update, but I am currently favoring regular updates every few days as opposed to only one big update per month. The game is leaving Early Access at the end of this year and I have approximately 100+ updates needed to be done before then so the best way is to get them out as quickly as possible and not keep players waiting for individual yet crucial improvements. It's going to be a big year so let's get to it!


1. Improved & refined enemy attack "bark" audio distribution system for more frequent and unique lines, and fortified the ability to prevent duplicate audio lines. Also applies to poachers making idle chatter among themselves when player is sneaking around. You will hear a lot more voice acting audio from the poachers in general now.

2. Improved guest lodge lighting/appearance.

3. Improved general gameplay in Guest Lodge side quest mission.

4. Terrain now looks better when viewed from birds eye view when using the vehicle third person camera or flying a drone.

5. Fixed an issue that would cause the debris from an exploded enemy vehicle to shoot up in the air if other enemy poachers or animals walk through it.

6. Fixed a bug that would reset your talk radio back to the start if you switched to the rock radio station for this first time after listening to talk radio for a while.

7. Re-Balanced volume of different radio stations for better consistency.

8. Radio can now still be heard when the vehicle is in third person mode.

9. Made it harder for your vehicle to get stuck on slopes.

10. Ostrich racing leaderboard now shows the top 10 fastest speeds instead of only the top 3.

11. Improved arm materials for playable Character #2 & Character #4

12. Fixed some possible terrain flashing during helicopter interlude mission phase 2 dialogue cutscene once landed and Gideon is speaking.

13. Fixed some occlusion culling issues in Interlude mission 2 causing terrain tiles to disappear in certain locations near where the dehorning helicopter lands.

14. Added some slight visual polish to the optional introduction cutscene.

15. Fixed a bug that would cause objects such as pickups/doors/vehicles to become non-interactive after an end level stats screen until the player switched back to a weapon, if the player was reloading a weapon at the time that the stats screen came up.

16. Made enemy damage slightly more forgiving on Medium/Hard difficulty settings.

17. Various other small internal optimizations and script fixes.


See you soon for the next update!

- Rob/Twelv [Ingozi Games]

This is officially the last update for 2025, and the fifth update for December. I'm happy to say sales and activity have been picking up lately these holidays, so I hope you've all been enjoying the updates and to all the new players - I hope you've been enjoying the game!

AI, Combat & Difficulty

• Improved enemy aim interaction with foliage: bushes now partially obscure enemy aim even when in front of you (not only when you’re inside them), while bullets can still pass through foliage.
  
• Balanced enemy rate-of-fire on certain enemies that were firing too frequently due to framerate.
  
• Various enemy cover-finding algorithm tweaks.
  
• Increased poacher pursuit speed.
  
• Fixed cover-finding breaking when a previously-used cover object was destroyed.
  
• Improved enemy coordination: better at communicating your position, and better at resetting back to patrol when they lose you or give up searching.
  
• Slightly increased enemy count in Chapter 2 (prior to the ending where only 5 enemies spawn per new day).
  
• Enemies now respond to the tranquilizer rifle like the sniper rifle: after seeing an ally downed and detecting ranged play, they adapt to engage from farther away instead of running into the open.
  
• Enemies now actively avoid standing directly next to fallen teammates to prevent tactical exploits (and reduce unnatural body pileups).
  

Weapons & Player Equipment

• Standard shotgun is now more powerful, but with increased shot spread.
  
• Improved Silenced SMG on-screen position when equipped.
  
• Improved appearance of R4 weapon textures/materials.
  
• Improved appearance of R1 / FAL FN weapon textures/materials.
  

Animations & Ragdolls

• Added 4 more unique enemy death animations (10 total, selected randomly on death).
  
• Improved quality of enemy death animation → ragdoll transition.
  
• Removed all unused death animations from enemy animation state machines (memory optimization).
  
• Fixed wobbly enemy walking caused by foot IK being enabled when it didn’t need to be.
  

Stealth & Foliage Systems

• Optimized stealth foliage trigger collision matrix.
  
• Fixed stealth bug where the “Hidden” label could appear in foliage while not crouched (caused by driving through stealth foliage zones and exiting a vehicle).
  
• Balanced leaf-rustling audio while moving through bushes (less loud).
  

World, Lighting, Weather & Time

• Increased day/night cycle length.
  
• Fixed time not progressing correctly when sleeping for one hour.
  
• Improved weather manager: storm wind now interpolates more gradually, and returns to normal once rain stops.
  
• Increased moonlight brightness for better night visibility without lantern/flashlight.
  
• Made daylight ever so slightly brighter for a more vivid aesthetic.
  
• Greatly increased cloud resolution for higher quality sky visuals.
  
• Improved appearance of water at the base of waterfalls.
  

Environment, Textures & Visual Polish

• Increased terrain ground texture resolution by more than double via tiling (no texture memory/performance impact). Improved terrain distance-blending to reduce distant tiling and better blend into the horizon.
  
• Added extremely high quality detail to rock textures (especially up close).
  
• Improved destroyed helicopter model textures/materials.
  
• Improved Diesel Generator texture mapping and other scratched metal objects.
  
• Improved ostrich detail normal maps when up close / when used as a vehicle.
  
• Improved poacher leader outfit materials.
  
• Added general polish to shebeen/tavern interior.
  
• Adjusted gameplay/polish in the nighttime camping interlude.
  
• Added general environment polish to helicopter/dehorning interlude #2.
  
• Removed ugly giant grass meshes from Mission 3 poacher camp and a few other locations.
  
• Removed duplicate overlapping foliage items leftover from previous builds, and removed redundant ones.
  
• Decreased likelihood of camera clipping through objects when moving up close.
  
• Added a stronger drop-shadow to subtitles for improved legibility.
  

Missions, Navmesh & Level Fixes

• Fixed navmesh issue in Mission 5 that could cause enemies to walk through warehouse models.
  
• Bullets can now pass through fences; also fixed enemies spawning behind a fence they couldn’t get past in Mission 3.
  
• Fixed navmesh issue allowing enemies to walk through the drone charging station in Mission 3.
  
• Fixed issue allowing the player to walk through drone charging station meshes.
  
• Fixed bug allowing you to walk through your vehicle during tutorial phase 2.
  
• Fixed terrain optimization volume near Mission 3 that caused low quality tree LODs to show too soon near the Mission 3 Wave 1 poacher camp.
  
• Fixed culling issue with the groundskeeper model in the tutorial (phase 2) that could make her head disappear when the player got too close.
  

Audio & Narrative Presentation

• Further improved audibility of conversations between poachers while they raid your camp.
  
• Stealth/Aggression tutorial radio transmission now triggers sooner when approaching the first poacher camp via the road (vs climbing the hill and approaching from the side).
  

Other

• Various other improvements (including thing I don't want to mention due to spoilers), plus general optimizations and internal fixes.
  
• Scorpions are no longer invincible.
  

I'll be back in 2026 very soon for more updates, and that will be soon - very VERY soon.
As always, thanks for playing and Happy Hunting!

- Rob [Ingozi Games]

Very happy to announce my fourth update for December, as collectively the changes from all updates now equals over 100+ crucial game fixes. The game is a lot more polished now, more fun, more challenging and more engaging - with still so much more left to do and so much more to come. Thank you to everybody involved in helping test, and to all new players who have recently purchased - welcome!! I look forward to hearing more from you soon.

1. New "Ranger Vision" mode which allows you to track animals and poachers, by making their footprints visible to you. Engage this mode by selecting it from the weapon wheel. This mechanic will continue to be expanded upon, and potentially lead to missions that will require the player to track and hunt down poachers instead of just be led to them with a waypoint. For now, you can just use the mechanic for help tracking animals or enemies during battle and also just to preview the mechanics unique aesthetic.
   
2. The RPG launcher, which is only used in very few select parts of the game is no longer a stored weapon but used only while carried. The weapon wheel slot that previously was wasted on this weapon is now used for the ranger vision. Switching to a different weapon while holding the RPG will now cause the weapon to be dropped, but you can still pick it up again where you dropped it if you need it, and retain all rockets/ammo you had for it.
   
3. Bullet Proof vests can now be purchased from the shop.
   
4. Weapon wheel now has text that tells you the name of the selected weapon/item/ability.
   
5. Developed a new shader for the obstacle course commanders face that looks good at all angles and doesn't wash out when the sun shine directly on his face.
   
6. Improved Gideon/Van Jaarsveld eye shader reflection properties.
   
7. Added some general visual polish & miscellaneous fixes to the obstacle course tutorial mission.
   
8. Improved quality of "Leaf Rustling" audio that plays when you move through bushes.
   
9. New artwork for the "Arsehole Lager" beer item found throughout the world.
   
10. Made all Crafting "Ghost" visualizers for placing items in the world such as tents, campfires or growing herbs much more visible.
    
11. Fixed issue that caused the sound alert radius made by sniper rifles to get exponentially louder with each shot without a threshold limit.
    
12. Added a "Clothing/Gear" section on the left hand side of the inventory to show equipped wearables and other static items and to aesthetically balance the new right hand side "hotkeys" slots. This will be expanded on in future when new gear and features are added.
    
13. Fixed more situations where messing around with your weapons too much in your camp would cause poachers to leave their camps and meet you at home before you had a chance to make it to the mission objective.
    
14. Balanced some weapon and weapon ammo availabilities in the game for a more fair challenge.
    
15. Improved on-screen appearance of equipped shotgun weapon when un-zoomed.
    
16. Fixed some terrain seams where the grass between 2 adjoined terrains was visibly different on the seams, making the seam between the 2 terrain tiles noticeably different. Located near Mission 10 start and a few other locations, now normalized across the entire map.
    
17. Adjusted distance waypoint calculation for a better sense of virtual game world scale.
    
18. Fixed an issue that could cause Zebras and Gazelle to run scared while playing the walking animation instead of the running animation.
    
19. Fixed a rare issue with tactical poachers firing from cover that could be blocked by approaching them from a very specific angle that caused them to rotate back and forth in a blind spot.
    
20. Improved quality of weapon muzzle smoke, especially during night-time.
    
21. Weapon muzzle flashes are now more realistic, subtle and less cartoonish - covering less of the screen and relying more on light effects than over the top particles, and allowing tracers and impact effects to be more visible.
    
22. Fixed bug causing enemies in Chapter 2 to get stuck while moving, resulting in them moving in increments of half a meter at a time, also made the enemies move to you quicker to make the engagement feel less like a fetch quest and more like base defense.
    
23. Fixed a short flicker in blood spawning where the blood sometimes showed briefly as a full patch for 1 frame before leaking out of the bodies into the ground.
    
24. Slightly adjusted R1/FAL weapon on-screen position for better appearance.
    
25. Weapons dropped by enemies now have more realistic colliders and physics as well as less likely to penetrate other items when falling. Enemies will also hold on to their weapons for a bit longer and then drop them as they fall more realistically instead of them just exploding out of the enemies hands as they die.
    
26. Various other small bug fixes and internal optimizations.
    

Happy holidays to all! And see you soon with the next update V0.9.4 shortly after Xmas.

- Rob/Twelv (Ingozi Games)

This update comes out only a few days after the previous update, but I'm in a good rhythm at the moment so the next update after this will most likely also be out in just a few days! I am mostly covering A.I. improvements, fixes and polish. But looking at adding some new content soon too.

1. Balanced "Easy" difficulty setting to be easier, as new game features such as strafing have made the game much harder. Easy mode now affects enemy aim accuracy as well as damage.
   
2. Fixed animal culling issue in main camp that could cause animals to disappear/appear in front of your eyes when entering/exiting the main camp.
   
3. Waypoint to guest lodge is now always visible when using your vehicle in all missions.
   
4. The sound of a bullet hitting a surface can now alert enemies, as opposed to only the sound of gun itself firing.
   
5. Improved consistency of enemy strafing and obstacle avoidance across enemy instances.
   
6. Improved enemy rotation when taking corners and made their movement look less like soccer players.
   
7. Added some better vocal EQ & compression to some voice acting clips in "A Thorny Issue" bonus mission.
   
8. Improved lighting & shadows inside helicopter in "A Thorny Issue" bonus mission.
   
9. Gave Gideon a new hat variation for the second bonus mission.
   
10. Added a warning for both bonus missions with Gideon, that warn you about going too far from the mission zone before you reach the failure distance threshold.
    
11. Gideon's hat now falls off when he falls down for added animation realism.
    
12. Bonus mission now fails if the enemy vehicle runs him over while he is K.O.
    
13. Gideon now frowns noticeably if you point the tranquilizer at him.
    
14. Improved tranquilizer rifle weapon texture.
    
15. Fixed missing info panel text in helicopter bonus mission.
    
16. Fixed issue with enemy vehicle being able to kill you even when moving at a slow speed or stationary.
    
17. Optimized Alert Management code that was making more calls than necessary.
    
18. Added an enemy vehicle to Mission 4 where the poachers try to rescue the leader to establish the enemy vehicles as a game mechanic and not just a once-off feature in a single bonus mission.
    
19. Balanced prices of items in the tavern to reflect the global world prices in game.
    
20. Fixed enemy vehicle collisions causing instant death even with invincibility cheats or powerups enabled. Damage is also now proportional to speed as opposed to instant kill.
    
21. Guest lodge is now closed during Mission 7, 8 & 10 due to emergency lockdown reasons, based on the events of the story at that time.
    
22. Fixed enemy vehicle driver head rotating like an owl when looking at player from drivers seat.
    
23. Optimized path finding algorithm for enemies that "rush" the player to prevent lock-conditions that might freeze enemies, and also improve the multi-threading of the pathfinding.
    
24. Fixed issue that would allow players to skip the second part of the tutorial directly into the main game without playing the third part.
    

Some new radio stations should also be added soon, so that you'll have multiple different stations to switch between instead of only 2. Some other surprises coming this December which I will reveal soon. As always, please keep those bug reports coming and happy holidays to you all!