Hunters,
Here are the update notes for the 1.0 Release Candidate. Please note, due to the amount of content in this update, the notes will be posted through multiple announcements. Links will be provided at the bottom of each announcement to the next section.
Community Contract details
As all of the test server Community Contracts have been successfully completed (thank you to everyone for participating, great work!) the following details outline what will be granted to you for the completion:
The new challenge will be announced shortly after this update has been released.
Exclusive Early Access reward:
- Added Caldwell Conversion Chain Pistol "The Benefactor" - Exclusive reward for all players who purchased the game during Early Access.
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Version: v1.0
SteambuildID: 4125889
Client patch size: ~16.4GB
- Teams of three – You will now have the option to join with up to two friends to take on the horrors of the Louisiana Bayou.
- U.I 2.0 – The UI gets some love with a complete rework. Further details below.
- New hunter Character variations – the badass female Hunters join the ranks of the AHA.
- Legendary Hunter and weapon skins – 7 unique legendary character skins as well as an astonishing 33 Legendary weapons.
Teams of Three
- Bounty Hunt now features the option to play with teams of three (trios) in addition to the existing Solo and Duo teams.
- Increased the players per match from 10, to 12 players max.
- Opt-out check box option available in the lobby screen for those that do not want to queue against Trios.
- Added an “Underdog Bonus” that will increase the value of the captured bounty tokens as a reward for competing against larger teams.
- A solo Hunter playing against Duos will receive +100 per bounty token.
- A solo Hunter playing against Trios will receive +200 per bounty token.
- A duo team playing against Trios will receive +75 per bounty token.
- Duos will not receive a bonus against solos.
- Teams of three will never receive a bonus.
- Team of Three will only be available through friend invite for the initial release.
- We plan to add the option to queue with random players as a trio in a future update, post 1.0 Launch.
- You can play as a duo with random players against when queuing against teams of three.
- The “Rule-of-two” remains in place – ammo boxes, health supplies, looting and the bounty still only have the option to be used/interacted with by a max of 2 different players
- The additional coordination needed to play as a team of three is an intentional design choice to balance them effectively against solo and duo.
- This will also prevent teams of three from acquiring a higher amount of bounty from a mission than is possible for smaller teams.
- On the other hand, you now have to be mindful that there could be a 3rd Hunter protecting the bounty carriers, approach with caution!
Developer Note:The addition of the teams of three is a big step for us in the development of Hunt: Showdown, opening up the possibility to enjoy the game with more than one friend at a time. During our time testing this new addition, we found that trios added a whole new level of engagement to the game and provided a unique and fresh experience when compared with solo and duo. Trios (or squads) were the top requested feature throughout Early Access and we are very happy to finally be able to make this a reality in Hunt. To ensure a fair balance, we had to come up with a number of design adjustments to integrate the larger teams.
Our first step was to increase the player count from 10 to 12 players to allow 4 teams of 3 to be matched together. This was an essential requirement to keep the unpredictable atmosphere of a match, keeping players alert and guessing where the enemy might be lurking, never fully knowing if you are alone or surrounded.
Secondly, we wanted to ensure that those who are not a fan of the teams of three can continue to enjoy the game as before, with little to no impact. The new Underdog bonus is our answer to this which we feel should incentivize solos and duos to give the teams of three a try.
And lastly, we decided to stick with the “Rule-of-Two” as it is, using it as a way to balance the teams of three by adding an additional burden in terms of logistics (health, ammo, etc.). Only two of the three players will be able to use the same ammo or health supply, loot dead players or carry the bounty. This requires additional coordination to ensure that no player on the team runs low at a critical moment, as well as ensuring that the trio will not extract 50% more bounty than a duo, just because of having an extra pair of hands available.Book of Weapons
The new Book of Weapons gives players a further opportunity to unlock pieces of lore from the Hunt-verse. In addition, and more importantly, the Book of Weapons will replace a part of the unlock system that was previously tied to ranking up.
UI Improvements
This update sees a massive overhaul to the UI and the entire menu screen for increased usability on both PC and console.
- Added a new lobby screen
- A unified Hub where players can invite friends, choose contracts and customize mission parameters
- Invited players are displayed with their selected hunters, making the whole team visible to you in all its glory.
- Players will return to the lobby after each game, allowing for fast invites, resupplying and accepting the new contract.
- Bloodline screen
- Updated the Bloodline to help better understand the most important progression gates, such as Trainee mode, Hunter Tiers and celebrate prestige.
- The progress of the daily and weekly challenges is now displayed in a much cleaner way as well as improvements to the statistics and a better overview of the upcoming unlocks.
- Reworked roster screen
- Our focus here has been on the user experience, ensuring the process of managing your Hunters is as quick and painless as possible.
- Quality of life improvements have been made in all areas of the menu to give players full control over what to equip as well as the ability to arrange items into the correct slots with ease.
- Re-envisioned shop screen
- The store has been rebuilt from scratch, giving players a clear overview of what is currently available and upcoming unlocks.
- Base weaponry will continue to be unlocked via the Bloodline rank but their variants are now unlocked via player-driven progression in the new “Book of Weapons”.
- Additional filter options and a search feature have been added (PC only) to allow players to quickly search for their weapon of choice.
- Improved weapon statistics give players the full overview of their arsenal, compare weapons and choose the right gear for their missions.
- Improved leaderboards
- Players can now check their global leader board position as well as view the top 200 players for both Bounty Hunt and Quickplay.
- Filters available: Game-modes, Global top 100 and friends
- The top 3 players will be highlighted and celebrated accordingly, with additional filter options to allow sorting by a number of different stats.
- Full controller support for faster menu navigation
- The different tabs can be navigated using the shoulder and trigger buttons respectively
- Many important interactions can now be completed using the D-pad and buttons on the controller (without having to move the mouse cursor
- Cursor navigation using the analog sticks has been improved, making it a lot smoother and easier to control as well as to access tool tips.
- Summary screen
- The Summary screen has been given a clean-up, allowing for a much better overview of how the player did the missions and the rewards that have been earned.
Developer note:This update sees the introduction of our new UI, version 2.0. With the changes we have made, we wanted to greatly improve the usability and user experience in the menus of Hunt. Over time, we have added new features and will continue to add more, so we want to ensure that you are not overloaded or overwhelmed by these features. The new UI allows us to be more flexible, as well as creating a proper framework for future development. This should make it a lot more console-friendly and ensure that the UI flows as well on console as it does on PC. For more details, check out our blog “Hunt’s UI reborn”Female Hunters
1.0 brings with it our first set of Female Hunters and welcomes them to the ranks of the “American Hunters Association”.
- Female hunters will be available to hire randomly with the male hunters from the recruitment screen.
- Every reshuffle mixes the list of available Hunters. Each shuffle will include male and female variations.
- Female Hunters feature the same unisex hitboxes as their male counterparts and come with their own voice sets.
- 41 regular character variations have been added, spread across the 3 tiers, with 2 legendary variations. More to be added in future updates.
Developer note:We are very happy to be able to introduce female characters to the cast of Hunt. This is something that we have wanted to do for a long time as well as being another highly requested addition from the community. We hope you enjoy the addition of these characters and keep an eye out for more character variations (including legendary variations) in the future.Legendary Content
- Legendary content is a set of purely cosmetic weapon and Hunter variations that give players that extra element of customization and personalization with their loadouts.
- However, players can only ever own one of each legendary piece at a time (with the exception of found contraband equipment).
- Players can earn Blood Bonds that will allow you to permanently unlock legendary weapons and Hunters for recruitment.
- Blood Bonds can be earned by either playing the game, or by purchasing Blood Bond packs to unlock the preferred Legendary content if you wish to unlock them immediately.
- We have added a massive 33 legendary weapons, giving you an awesome collection to choose from.
- Complimenting these legendary weapons, players can now unlock unique legendary Hunters – each a legend of the Bayou in their own right.
- Legendary Hunters do not have traits or equipment and once unlocked can be recruited to you roster for “half a devil” ($333) each.
- Prestiging will be another way of unlocking legendary content, with players unlocking a random weapon or hunter at certain Prestige levels.
- In addition to this, there are also 5 exclusives legendary unlocks at prestige levels 5, 10, 25, 50 and 100.
Developer note:
Legendary content is a massive extension to the game, unlocking previously unused potential when it comes to the customization and personalization of your Hunters. We are delighted with the addition of legendary content as it gives us a chance to show a level of uniqueness and love for detail that has thus far been unseen in Hunt. By making it so that players can simply pay to unlock, we hope that we have created a fair and acceptable way of implementing premium cosmetics. Additionally, by rewarding players with random legendary unlocks at certain prestige levels, we are able to deliver on the promise we have been making throughout Early Access of having prestige rewards.
AI
New AI Variations
- Female grunt variations have now be added to the cast.
- Thematic grunt variations have now been added to the cast.
- Context driven skin variations for Grunts will now feature on both maps (e.g prisoners or guards around the prison, muddy grunts in muddy areas etc.).
General AI Changes
- Grunt based AI behavior has been reworked in instances where there target is in an unreachable position.
- Grunts will now attempt to attack players even if you are standing on unreachable props (such as haystacks).
- Grunts will now perform a taunt if their target is completely unreachable, generating much more noise.
- Grunts can be knocked down by charging Immolators or Armoured.
- Improvements made to the Off-navmesh of grunts making them less likely to become stuck in terrain or objects.
- Grunts that perform tasks (those that perform an action before you aggro or interact with them) have had their local rotation improved ensuring they will face the task object.
- Killing a Meathead now grants 200 XP per kill (previously 100 XP).
- Increased the taunt time for the Spider when it performs a successful pounce attack.
- Increased the damage caused by compact bullets to the Upper torso of Grunts.
- The Waterdevil has been rebalanced meaning it is now much easier to kill.
- The Waterdevil respawn timer has been reduced to 10 seconds.
- The Waterdevil will now change positions after a short time, while in its undisturbed state.
- Reduced the perception range of the Waterdevil slightly.
- Improved the perception of water disturbances for the Waterdevil.
- Numerous changes and fixes made to the overall navigation and behavior of the Waterdevils.
Developer note:
The role of the Waterdevil is to play a roadblock for the unprepared, in places that change up the avenues of attack or escaping a compound. To help fulfill this role in a far more meaningful and less frustrating way, we have changed its behavior so that you are able to better damage and distract it to open up pathways for you to get through unscathed. Be quick though, any Waterdevil that is killed or distracted will not stay that way for long.
- The Hive swarm will now clip through objects less in order to reach their targets.
- The Hive swarm can now be hit with melee attacks (shoo flies, no-one likes you).
- The Hive swarm can now be damaged by fire.
Developer note:
In an effort to help players combat the Hive swarm when their parent Hives are out of sight, we have introduced melee and fire damage counters. A blunt melee or slash attack is more effective than a stab but all methods can be used to swat away that pesky swarm.
- Complete rework of the Meatheads core behavior:
- The Meathead now has an extremely limited sight range thanks to the addition of leaches ON his body.
- The Meathead will spawn 5 leeches.
- Leeches are now spread out around the Meathead in a defensive position.
- Increased the movement speed of the leeches to make them much faster than they were previously.
- The leeches will now alert the meathead to the player’s position – acting as scouts for the Meathead.
- The Meathead is able to sense any player that has been poisoned within a 15m.
- The Meathead will react in a rage if a leech is killed.
- Improved the Meathead’s navigation so that he will take a more believable path to his target.
Developer note:
The rework to the meathead allows us to truly play into the fact that he is blind and cannot hear anything. The leeches will now act as scouts that will broadcast the players’ position to the parent Meathead when they screech. The Meathead, however, will be able to sense players that have been poisoned, making him a very dangerous target when in a poisoned state. Players can also poison other players when they are sneaking past a meathead to aggro the monster.
- Improvements made to the Armored behavior in instances when their target is in an unreachable position.
- Armored will break down doors if they see their target run through it.
- Armored will now attempt to attack players even if they are in an unreachable position.
- Armored will perform a taunt if their target is on an unreachable prop (such as haystacks).
- Armored will knock down other AI (Grunts, Hives) while charging.
- Armored will be knocked back while charging if he runs into a Meathead.
- Improvements made to the Off-navmesh of Armored making them less likely to become stuck in terrain or objects.
- Balancing pass performed on the Immolator making it easier to kill with low tier weapons.
- Immolator will now knock down other AI (Grunts, Hives) while charging.
- Immolator will be knocked back while charging if he runs into a Meathead.
- Hellhounds will now chase their targets through gaps in the fences.
- Hellhounds now have an improved way to deal with unreachable targets.
- Hellhounds now have an improved search pattern after taking damage from something unknown that is far away.
- Improvements made to the perception of the Hellhounds awareness (head movements/direction will be clearer when the Hellhound notices something interesting, for example their target)
- Ongoing improvements being made to prevent AI from spawning too close to, or inside of the boss arenas
General Boss Changes
- Banishing and bounty interaction prompts will no longer become stuck inside walls or other objects.
- Body damage to the bosses has been re-balanced.
- Reduced the amount of damage done to the Spider and Assassin by the Bomb lance.
- All bosses now require 3 successful hits with the Bomb lance to die.
Developer Note:
In order to ensure that all of the bosses are feasible options to engage, we have balanced them to all be more in line. With this change, our hope is that players will feel that there are no “bad” options when picking a boss and feel more driven to engage.- All bosses now have a frenzy mode during the encounter (similar to the recent change to the Butcher in 6.0, more details below)
Spider Boss Changes
- Adjustments made to the attack timing of the Spider to make it far more aggressive.
- Spider jump attacks can now be interrupted when the Spider is in mid-air.
- Added a “bump”/knock back effect in instances when the Spider will run into a player.
- Frenzy mode:
- 15 second duration.
- Damage reduced by half while in a frenzy.
- Cannot be interrupted.
- During a frenzy, the Spider will chase its target and bite.
Assassin Boss Changes- Increased the damage done by the Assassin’s ranged attack when it directly hits its target.
- The bug screen effect caused by the Assassin will now affect the player if they are too close to the Assassin when it disappears.
- Improvements made to the Assassin’s clone movement to prevent it from encountering issues when turning around corners.
- Reduced the damage required to interrupt the Assassin’s attack.
- The Assassin can no longer be interrupted by fire patches.
- Initial explosions from lanterns and fire bombs will still interrupt the Assassin as normal.
- The Assassin can no longer be interrupted when attacking a player that is suffering from the bug-screen effect.
- Further improvements made to prevent issues from occurring when the Assassin dies
- Frenzy mode:
- Clone phase will now last for ~15 seconds and will continue to spawn new clones during this time.
- If the Assassin causes damage to a player, the phase will end early
- Damaged reduced by half while in a frenzy.
- Clones will appear as normal, but may emerge from more obscure positions.
Developer Note:
As well as making changes to the Spider to make her more engaging and aggressive, we have carried over the frenzy mode feature of the Butcher to the other 2 bosses. This change in behavior that is shown as you progress through the fight should make the engagements far more interesting.Butcher Boss Changes
- The Butchers health has been adjusted to be more in line with the other bosses.
- Increased the amount of damage required to trigger the frenzy.
- The Butcher’s pig-head will now fall off earlier in the fight.
- Improvements made to the Butcher's target selection. The Butcher was switching targets too often making him more unpredictable than he should be. Locking on to specific targets should be a lot more reliable and readable.
Audio
Developer Note:
As we leave Early Access, one requirement for us to be sure that Hunt: Showdown is ready was mixing the game in 7.1 surround. Our focus here is to cater to our three core pillars in terms of audio: readability, realism and consistency. (Some extra info on Hunt’s Binaural audio can be found here)
During this process, adjustments were made to all sounds in game as well as adjusting volumes, attenuation, reverb and occlusion. The result is a far clearer, cleaner, and balanced mix. Once you are more familiar with these improvements, you should notice how these improvements will give you a more accurate perception of the game world around you, leading to a more intense and immersive experience than before. We are very happy with this result but as always, we will continue to make further adjustments based on your ongoing feedback.
We want to take this chance to thank you all again for all the input you have provided related to Hunt’s audio during Early Access.
- 7.1 surround mixing pass.
- Adjustments made to the CrySpatial filter.
- Added new Hunter “effort” voice sets.
- Consistency passes on footsteps for Players and AI cast.
- Compound SFX Rumble added to the Sound Effects slider.
- Additional instrumental music pieces added to the main menu.
- Audio feedback added when you lose a bullet without having the Bullet Grabber trait on your Hunter.
- Added a priming sound effect to the Flash bomb.
- Increased the range at which priming explosives can be heard.
- Collision pass on all equipment, tools and weapons.
- Delays implemented to the second part of the male Hunter death sound by 0.1seconds and reduced the volume.
- Bleeding’ status audio is now used for ‘poisoned’ status audio to make it less intrusive.
- Decreased the audible range at which Hunter breathing can be heard.
- Adjusted the audio for the logo to match the updated Splash screens.
Gunplay
New Equipment
- Bornheim No.3 Extended:
- Variant of the Bornheim with an increased capacity of 8 rounds, but can only be reloaded one bullet at a time.
- Lebel 1886 Talon:
- Variant of the Lebel 1886 equipped with a blade on the buttstock for heavy melee attacks.
- Lebel 1886 Marksman:
- Variant of the Lebel 1886 equipped with a medium scope for increased range.
- Weak Stamina Shot:
- Instantly replenishes stamina and prevents it from depleting for one minute.
- Weak Antidote Shot:
- Instantly cures poison and protects the player from poison for six minutes.
Weapon ChangesDeveloper Note:In general, 1.0 is changing the weapon balance up in a number of ways; from projectile speed ignoring arms for blocking hits to the body, reduced sway in ADS, to wall penetration changes - as well as extra ammo capacity adjustments. In some cases, where a weapon loses one advantage, it potentially can gain an advantage in other areas. For example, The Sparks now has a lower, more realistic bullet speed that has an impact against moving targets at range, but any torso hits are more likely to inflict the maximum damage; which balances the offset. The reduced sway and increased ammo help increase your chances of hitting, but also allows the weapon to be used with more sidearms other than the Uppercut without running low on long bullets too quickly. There are a number of other examples like this throughout the arsenal that will take some time for players to get used to/relearn how to effectively use their favorite weapons.
- Improvements made to the responsiveness of successive melee attacks.
- A new melee attack can now be queued up once the stamina of the current attack has been consumed. This should allow for a much more fluid combat experience.
- Winfield variants that use iron sights now use a different animation when preparing shots while aiming down sights. You can no longer switch equipment while cooking the Concertina bomb.
- The Concertina Bomb will now drop and activate if a Hunter is killed while it is being cooked.
- Increased the ranges of the AI stimuli for Crossbows and silenced weapons.
- Cracks in scopes are now tied to the contraband status of the weapons. Standard (Non contraband) weapons will not have cracked scopes.
- The Lebel 1886 ‘raise to hip’ animation now matches all other rifles.
- Increased the damage caused by the Bomb lance upon impacting a player.
- Improvements made to the feedback of the Bomb Lance.
- Increased the zoom of the Winfield M1873 Aperture sights. It now also supports the Steady Aim trait.
- Increased the sway of bayonet weapon variants.
- Increased the reload time of the Caldwell Conversion Uppercut.
- Minor optimizations made to the aim down sights transition after reloading a crossbow.
- Increased the rate or fire of the Nagant M1895 Precision and Deadeye variants.
- Decreased the recoil of the Nagant M1895 Precision and Deadeye variants.
- Revolver logic improvements: When a revolver is partially reloaded, the drum has to be spun again to ensure that the first loaded round properly aligns with the barrel.
- Increased the sway of silenced rifles (similar to the bayonet variants).
- Increased the damage of the Sparks LRR silenced to be more in line with the standard Sparks. (Damage fall off over distance remains unchanged).
- Increased the recoil of Talon weapon variants over their parent base weapons due to the back-heavy blade attachment.
- Scoped weapon ADS changes: Crosshair spread will take a brief moment to tighten up fully when scoped reducing the effectiveness of quick scoping.
- Increased the shotgun damage of the LeMat Mark IIto match the spread and damage of the Rival 78 Handcannon, but with a higher vertical recoil kick.
- Slightly increased the rate fire for the Caldwell Pax.
- Increased the extra ammo for the Nagant M1895 and its variants to 35 rounds (previously 21).
- Increased the extra ammo for the Nagant M1895 Officer and its variants to 21 rounds (previously 14).
- Increased the extra ammo for the Caldwell Conversion pistol and its Chain pistol variant to 30 rounds (previously 24 rounds).
- Increased the extra ammo for the Sparks LRR and its variants to 20 rounds (previously 17).
- Reduced the rate of fire for the LeMat Mark II.
- Reduced the reload time of the crossbow when using the Bolt thrower trait.
- Improvements made to the melee hit registration as well as the speed of the hit feedback.
- Improvements made to the projectile hit registrations and validation.
- Main improvements here have been made to the server side hit validation for projectiles. This should lower the chances of legitimate shots becoming invalid from the servers’ perspective.
- The Dolch 96 now uses Special ammo instead of Medium ammo.
- Increased the recoil of the Dolch 96 making it harder to control when rapid firing.
- Dolch 96 ammo capacity changed to [10/10] previously [10/5].
Developer Note
The Dolch and its place in the game balance is something that has been troubling us for some time, and as you know we have tried a number of different solutions during Early Access. The dilemma we are facing is that we want to ensure the weapon is portrayed correctly, being the most powerful and advanced weapons of its time, firing bullets at velocities that are unmatched by classic black powder handguns. On the other hand, we have to find compromise between its pros and cons to ensure that is has a balanced place in the arsenal and is not considered too OP.
With these changes, we want to clearly position the Dolch as an endgame weapon. Being the powerful weapon that it is, it needs to come at a price. Aside from increasing the cost, we are also making it harder to use: we are drastically increasing the recoil even further and changing its ammo type to Special ammo to make it harder to resupply (new ammo type is referred to as a “Modern Smokeless Powder Pistol cartridge” that refills from Special ammo packs only, similar to the crossbow and Nitro Express). No changes have been made to the ballistics of these bullets so it will function as before just with the price and recoil changes.
To compensate for these nerfs, we are reverting to the old ammo capacity of [10/10] instead of the current [10/5]. Originally this ammo reduction was to reduce the effects of equipping additional Medium ammo weapons for the purposes of having extra rounds for the Dolch. These changes, mean that we can safely return it the previous capacity removing the complicated ammo management.
We hope that this combination of changes will finally allow the Dolch to find its place in the arsenal. Make sure to give us your feedback on these changes. ++
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Part 2 of the Update notes can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/594650/announcements/detail/1610521070460340560
