Hunt: Showdown 1896 News

Hunters, 
 
The Live Servers will be taken offline Tomorrow, 25 November at 08:00 CET to deploy Update 2.1.1. With it, we are adding the contents from Harvest of Ghosts to regular progression and rolling out a number of fixes. Check out the full list of changes below!

Est. Downtime ~3 hours.


[h3]Harvest of Ghosts Ends[/h3]
Harvest of Ghosts content added to regular progression

[h3]Weekly Challenges[/h3]
Updated Weekly Challenge Sets



[h3]Meta [/h3]

The new Weapons, their variants, and their Custom Ammo have been added to the regular progression.

• Rifles:
  
  • Maynard Sniper – Bloodline Rank 1
    
  • Maynard Sniper Dumdum Ammo – Bloodline Rank 1
    
  • Maynard Sniper High Velocity Ammo – Bloodline Rank 1
    
  • Centennial Pointman – 5th unlock in the Centennial family
    
• Shotguns:
  
  • Auto-4 Shorty – 2nd unlock in the Auto-5 family
    
  • Rival 78 Mace - 3rd unlock in the Rival 78 family
    
• Special:
  
  • Bomb Launcher – Bloodline Rank 1
    
    Developer's Note: The Bomb Launcher has become the base weapon of the Bomb Lance. The player now needs to earn 600 XP (for example 2 Meathead or Hunter kills) with an item of the Bomb Launcher family (Bomb Lance and Bomb Launcher) to unlock the Bomb Lance.
    This change within this family was made because the Bomb Launcher is a better option to bring as a secondary weapon without affecting the loadout selection too much, allowing the player to form their loadout better with another Medium Slot weapon or, in combination with the Quartermaster Trait, their favorite Large Slot weapon.
    
    
  • Bomb Launcher Harpoon – Bloodline Rank 1
    
  • Hand Crossbow Revive Bolt – Bloodline Rank 1
    
• Consumables:
  
  Dark Dynamite Satchel – Bloodline Rank 46
  

[h3]NVIDIA Inspector[/h3]
With Update 2.1.1, we are restricting the use of Nvidia Profile Inspector.




[h3]UI [/h3]

• Fixed one of two issues that would cause players on PC to have a cursor present in-game.
  
  • The one that is fixed is related to getting the cursor stuck in menus.
    
  • The one that will be fixed in a future update is related to alt-tabbing.
• Players shared concerns about unclear Bundle content. We've improved store communication to prevent accidental purchases, with more improvements coming in future updates.
  
  • All prices except the Bundle pop-up now show the correct full amount of the individual purchase for an item that is also available in a Bundle. The discount players get when purchasing it through a Bundle is still highlighted with a Bundle discount badge.
    
  • Double-clicking has been disabled on the Bundle Store page.
    
  • A purchase confirmation pop-up has been added to make clear to the player how much they are spending.
• To avoid players accidentally buying the wrong Skin, an issue was fixed where Skins could swap locations and show the incorrect preview.
  
• Discounts will now be correctly shown in the “Buy” shortcut button.
  
• To prevent players from accidentally triggering hotkeys while using the search functionality, a hacky fix was made. A proper rework to prevent this from happening will be in the next release.
  
• Fixed an issue where clicking on filters could activate the search bar and make shortcuts disappear.
  
• The “Read More” button on news articles should work as expected again and redirect players correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the Gear screen when activating a filter after equipping a Tool.
  
• Fixed a low repro crash in the lobby which could occur during ready-up or matchmaking.
  
• There were a number of issues present in the DLC Store. To address these, the following changes were made:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the Hunter banner would not properly represent the selected Hunter in the DLC Store.
    
  • DLC items are now correctly linked and open the correct Steam shop page.
    
  • Fixed an issue where DLC items were incorrectly showing a plus icon on their card in the store.
• Fixed an issue where the burning animation on the map could be missing when banishing.
  
• Fixed the sorting order on Traits to be Favorites (if there are any) -> normal Traits -> Event Traits -> Scarce/Burn Traits.
  
• Players can now equip the Scottfield Swift as a dual-wield when the “Brave Charge” Skin is applied.
  
• Fixed a memory leak related to toggling the map.
  

[h3]Other[/h3]

• Fixed a rare crash that likely occurred during the ready-up or matchmaking process
  
• Fixed a rare freeze that could occur upon loading into Bounty Clash
  
• Fixed a bug where certain items had low-resolution textures
  
• Fixed an issue where the mouse cursor would sometimes randomly appear in-game and could also move outside the game window when in Windowed Mode
  
• Fixed a bug that applied the "Against Teams of Three" bonus to a team of two, even when "Against Teams of Two" was selected
  
• Fixed a glitch that caused the Martini Henry to render incorrectly
  
• Fixed a bug where Dark Sight would turn red when HDR was enabled
  
• Fixed a bug where the burning animation on the map would occasionally be missing
  
• Fixed an issue where filters couldn’t be activated on any store page, with the button appearing greyed out
  
• Fixed a bug where, when activating a filter after equipping a Tool, would occasionally cause the user to get stuck on the Gear screen
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the shortcuts to disappear when clicking on filters activated the search bar
  
• Fixed a bug where Traits were displayed in the wrong order
  
• Fixed an issue where the Hellborn model was missing on the Death Screen after a kill, and the cause of death might display inaccurately
  
• Fixed a bug where placing a Dark Dynamite Satchel outside an opponent’s hearing range prevented them from hearing it, even if they walked right up to it
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause owned Hunters to disappear from recruit screens
  
• Corrected the issue where missing textures on The Mountain Man's dreamcatcher talisman appeared in the Hunter model preview
  
• Resolved an exploit allowing a specific type of Dynamite to respawn and be looted again after exploding
  
• Fixed an issue where, if the player visits the Hunter Store and then the DLC Store, the banner image for the Hunter may not match the selected Hunter
  
• Fixed a bug where if the game client received no response from a matchmaking request (e.g. during infrastructure changes), it would mistakenly stay in matchmaking mode, preventing new requests.
  

Hunters, in today’s Developer Insight we are bringing an update from our Fair Play Task Force and providing some data regarding recent bans and actions we have taken against popular exploits.

[h3]NPI Exploit & Tracking [/h3]

We recently implemented new detection measures that we are employing to catch several kinds of offenders - one of which is the well-known Nvidia Profile Inspector abuse.

Nvidia Profile Inspector (NPI) is a tool that helps users customize their graphics card performance in ways that aren’t possible in regular settings. It allows players to fine-tune how their machine runs games, making it possible to improve performance or change specific visual effects.

This tool was being misused to force Hunt to render the game at such low graphical quality that the abuser would be able to see through vegetation across maps and remove visibility of certain objects entirely at distance.

After some research from the FPTF, we have now added ways to reliably log players using this exploit and identify every single instance of misuse. As well as tracking and punishing offenders, this has allowed us to collect data on those engaging with the exploit to help us better understand who would be abusing NPI and how many times it was being abused, for every abuser.

We have found a total of 1009 players who have used the NPI exploit at least once.

We applied sanctions to offenders depending on the number of occurrences they have misused this exploit, as well as the number of sanctions they have already received in the past:

• 10 users received a permanent sanction
  
• 32 users have been sanctioned for 30 days
  
• 330 users have been sanctioned for 14 days
  

However, we have decided that many of the one-time abusers would not be sanctioned. In these instances, the curiosity that led players to engage the exploit didn’t result in repeated abuse. In certain instances, we can understand that some users may have tried the exploit just one time to understand and combat the advantage abusers had in matches without the intention to exploit that advantage themselves going forward.

We also took the chance to explore what kind of players use this exploit, which helps us understanding better the kind of audience we are dealing with:

[h3]MMR Distribution [/h3]

The following chart demonstrates the percentual of sanctioned players’ rank distribution across the last month:


We can see players of the highest 6 star rank are disproportionately represented in the sanction data with around 55% of offenders playing within this bracket, which makes sense given the effect of exploits on performance. However, it also illustrates how few offenders exist in other MMR categories in comparison.

[h3]Hours Distribution [/h3]

This data provides insight into the percentual of sanctioned players’ total play time.



We found an even spread across the combined play time of accounts found to be offenders.

[h3]High Ping Players [/h3]

Last month we provided some insight into our efforts to address high ping players in Matchmaking. Our investigation continues as we look to design a system that can ease tension around this issue and create a fairer ecosystem for gameplay. This may result in making ping a matchmaking factor, allowing us to segment players with high ping – but nothing is currently confirmed as we continue to work on a functional solution.

[h3]How To Report Players [/h3]

While automatic bans are good for banning cheaters en masse, community reporting is still extremely important to us. You can report cheaters by the following methods:

• If you are killed by someone that you would like to report, while on the Death Screen, you can click on "SHOW KILLER PROFILE" or press "R", then select "Report". You can then fill in any report reasons that apply to the case and add any additional information.
  
• After the Mission is over, from the Last Mission "Team Details" menu, you can click on the profile you would like to report, then click on "ACTIONS MENU" or press "F", select "Report", and proceed as outlined above.
  
• You can report via our website if you have any additional context you would like to share. You can do this by going to www.huntshowdown.com . In the bottom right corner of the screen, you'll see "Please log in for support". After logging in, open a new ticket, select your language and platform as well as "I'd like to report another player" and the bot will guide you through the process.
  

Thank you for your exploit reports so far, we are adding more and more detections that will allow us to find and sanction unfair players, and continue to improve the gameplay experience.

We've been saying for years that cowboy extraction shooter Hunt: Showdown 1896 is one of the best multiplayer FPSes out there, but if you don't believe us, maybe you'd rather hear it from Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Post Malone...
Read more.

They say he came out of the Georgia hills, way up north near the Tennessee state line. Walked out of them woods with a guitar on his back and a dream, back in those wilder days. He'd wander from town to town, singing songs with power in them, songs that called to the lonely and the desperate and the strange. Every town he went through, one or two or five of these misfits would just pick up and follow him when he left. He never asked, and he never offered. They just came, and put their faith in him. Pretty soon what had been one man with song on his lips turned into a traveling carnival, a circus where folks slotted themselves into roles they discovered they had all been born to play. They got big enough so that real circus acts heard tell of them and joined up too. Made things respectable, at least on the outside.

The circus followed the roads, going wherever he wanted. It got a bit of a rep, too. A little dirty, a little dangerous, and while he'd always come out to sing and make the ladies swoon, in the back alleys behind the tents there'd be darker stuff going on.

We sat down with Hunt veteran Post Malone for an exclusive Q&A!
From dream Traits to the perfect loadout and tons more, check out the full interview now.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]