The Hunter

Just started playing this. What fantastic graphics! Leaves falling, insects fluttering around, rays of sunlight through the trees etc. Nice, slow paced gameplay too.
 
Status Update - 21st Apr 2010

Postby Stefan Pettersson on Wed Apr 21, 2010 9:03 pm
Status Update time again!

We are working hard on the upcoming release. Things are getting in place and we fix bugs by the day. During the past week we've seen everything from levitating boxes to pink buildings as well some more subtle appearances of more intricate errors.

We're still targeting an end of May release.

Logger's Point

Thanks for all the name suggestions of the new area! After much debate it finally got its name: Logger's Point

theHunter in Escapist Magazine

Rob Zacny wrote an excellent article about theHunter entitled Slow Death In a Shady Glen. Read it in issue #250 of the Escapist Magazine (all free). What do you think?

Community Manager

After lots of applications and many interviews I'm very happy to say that we've hired someone for the Community Manager position. He'll start next week so expect an introduction in the next Status Update.

As we see it, the primary objective of the Community Manager is to ensure that all current and future users have the best possible experience with the game. This is a multifaceted role including things such as running competitions and doing community events, managing customer support, maintaining documentation and FAQs, creating tutorials, moderating and prevent cheating, empowering the community to both help develop and promote the game, and so on. Not to mention identifying both opportunities and problems that should be addressed by the development team to constantly make theHunter an even better experience!

We're really happy to have him on board and expect nothing short of wonders. ;-) You'll meet him next week.

Starting 3rd of May we will take over Customer Support internally. An enourmous thanks to Troy at (former) Emote for managing the support during the whole transition period.

Some screenshots...

Now you know why we felt the name Logger's Point was appropriate...





Running not recommended.




...oh... who's there?





love the new bridge should look stunning :cool:

also lots think the new deer is a roe deer
 
Status Update - 28th Apr 2010

Postby Stefan Pettersson on Wed Apr 28, 2010 8:36 pm
Last Status Update of April!

This week Lion Martinez joined the team as Community Manager, and next week we finally get someone dedicated to serverside development. During the past 2 months we've actually had to bring in an external consultant to handle the migration. Overall an important step towards the release and building the team.

Customer Support

Starting Monday 3rd of May we will take over Customer Support internally. Big thank you to Troy at (former) Emote to managing it during the transition period following the acquisition.

Community Manager

In the previous update we touched upon some of the duties of the community manager. But let's here it from the man himself.

So please say hi to Lion (I'm sure he'll post some replies in this thread).

Greetings everyone,

My name is Lion and I'm proud to be your new Community Manager. It will be an utmost pleasure communicating with you and working with you during the evolving nature of the fantastic game that is The Hunter.

My background regarding this position stems from the gaming industry where I've for the last decade acted as moderator, editor, publisher for game and fan sites around the world and gaming definitely a huge passion of mine. The opportunity to work with the greatest hunting game ever was nothing short of a dream for me. I've spent countless summers out fishing (I can gut and fillet a herring with my bare hands :)) and I've also been out hunting here and there.

I'm very excited to get the opportunity to work with the team here at Expansive Worlds. They are truly dedicated and skilled people whom I will learn a lot from at the same time as I hopefully contribute with my own experience.

What is a Community Manager?

A Community Manager in short is the external voice of the developing company and the internal voice of the community. It's my job to compile and convey your thoughts, ideas and any feedback you might have regarding the development of the The Hunter as well as provide you with information about development progress and community events. I will also handle customer support and hopefully contribute with my own ideas and experiences.

It's important to mention that a Community Manager is not a developer in the sense that I don't handle any coding or anything directly connected to the game client. I do however with your help have a certain amount of influence on the process and it's vital to me that you are able to express yourself and that your word reaches the correct person.

What are my goals and visions?

Outside the specific tasks, I have a lot of ideas regarding this website and these forums. I strongly believe in the power of the player, the strength of the community and I truly want to surface and put focus on the players and bring the community to the forefront of game development and progression. I'm lucky to be with a company that understands and shares my passion for player-driven gaming and there's no doubt in my mind that we'll succeed, you and us together.

One of the first bullets on my agenda is to make sure these forums become a lot more user friendly and of course a lot less SPAM friendly. This will most likely happen within the next couple of days and I assure you it will all be for the better for YOU the fan.

I once again want to say "hi", thanks for reading and have a great week. Looking forward to many interesting discussion with you all!

Kind regards,

Lion M - Community Manager



Oh, that animal...

That animal that lurked in the screenshot posted in the previous update... I think everyone agreed it was a deer, but beside that there were quite some guesses.

In addition to the feral hog the other animal that will become available in the next content update is the blacktail deer. For those who wished for it - there you go. For those rather wanted something else - we're already working on another animal for a future update (not the next).

Here are some blacktail screenshots...










there might be few tweaks to the animals before release as some have stated that the top deer (blacktail) looks very similar to a muley. hope so .not long now few more weeks
 
there is blood splatter if you shoot a animal and its either wounded or dead also bullet marks entry wounds . you actually use the blood trail to track the wounded animal if it escapes


no at moment theres only single player but multi - co op keeps coming up but its not a game where you want everyone running round ruining your hunt . there are competitions all the time in game and you can speak to anyone in game as well with live chat built in the game. bit like live xfire lol
 
Last edited:
Status Update - 5th May 2010

Postby Stefan Pettersson on Today, 3:12 pm
For me, this Status Update is special.

That's because it is my first Status Update as a full-time employee of Expansive Worlds. Up until this Monday I've more or less spent all my spare time on theHunter, so it's great to actually finally get to work (during the day). :)

Anyway, more importantly this Monday also Emil H (who you've might have seen in the forums) also joined the team full-time as a server/web developer.

More or less on his first day he implemented something we've been missing...

Turkey Scoring

Yes, finally we will see appropriate turkey scoring with the next update. Here is the scoring sheet...






Nicely illustrated by Peter J.

Survey

Don't miss the chance of winning some em$ (maybe we should rename them to ew$ now? ;)) by completing the survey that Lion is running. You'll find it here:

viewtopic.php?f=91&t=16325

A look at Logger's Point

Besides running surveys, answering support mail, keeping track of the forums and a myriad of other things, Lion also (in very short time) put together this little video preview of upcoming Logger's Point...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTEr8eVO88E



...and thanks for all feedback in the forums - we read every single post!

By the way, you do know you can follow theHunter on Twitter? http://twitter.com/thehuntergame

Stefan Pettersson
Developer



ooh getting closer cant wait :cool:
 
Status Update - 12th May 2010

Postby Stefan Pettersson on Today, 2:07 pm
Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and ask yourselves why you got there in the first place.

Introducing a new bow, slightly stronger than the current one, just didn't felt right. Not only because of the criticism of the power of old bow.

Something else that was on the original roadmap for this release was a special edition of the .300 Bolt Action Rifle. In reality it was the same weapon but with a different look. It was going to be sold as a new weapon.

It didn't feel right so we started discussing how to differentiate the weapons. Maybe the new slightly stronger bow would be more unstable, or make more noise thus making it only useful on longer distances bringing purpose to the old bow being used on shorter distances. And so the discussion continued...

I still just didn't feel right, it wasn't aligned with our vision, so we asked ourselves how we got into this in the first place. The answer was that these things were developed last year and we did more or less inherit the roadmap from the previous owners. Instead of forcing this out in this release "just because it was done" felt wrong, so we took a step back, and decided to do "the right thing" (of course, everybody will not agree what that actually is).

We will not release a new bow, instead we will tweak the existing one. And we will set out to design a system where add-on equipment may be used to modify characteristics of the bow, rather than just releasing the "same bow" slightly stronger with another color. We envision that the bow should be good enough for the casual bow hunter, while still allowing the true bow enthusiast to modify the behavior of the bow by adding stabilizators, using a release, custom sights, etc.

Although being able to customize the look of weapons and equipment to make them more personal indeed is an important part, we will not release a new look of the .300 Bolt Action Rifle, charging full fee. It might cause some spending now, but in the long-term it doesn't feel like "the right thing" to do.

Instead, what we want to do, is to design a system where multiple visual variations of the same weapon do exist, allowing the dedicated player to make his kit really personal but to a fraction of the price of the original weapon. This is more flexible, more honest and does also, I believe, makes more business sense in the long run.

We want to be proud of what we do, and we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we cannot honestly say that "we did what we thought was best for the game" if approached by the community. I strongly believe that this, and staying true to our core values, is what will lead to an even better game and a viable business model with a revenue stream allowing us to continue refining and adding content to theHunter.


So... how is work on the next update going?

Pretty well, thanks for asking. :) We are getting close (end of May is still the target) and are focusing on fixing bugs, balancing, tweaking and putting in that extra polish. I believe we have touched more or less every animal in the game to improve it in some aspect, and there are also quite some surprises that we will let you discover for yourselves.

An area where we want to do a lot of improvement is animation and we are interviewing candidates for the animator position this and next week.

A reminder; With over 1000 submissions so far, the prizes for the survey submissions will be handed out on Friday. The survey will stay open for statistical purposes but the chance to win the prize will close Friday at 10am GMT. Thank you everyone for helping out, it's very much appreciated!

A Status Update slightly different than the previous ones, no screenshots but a little bit more insight into how, and why, we aim to make theHunter the world's best possible virtual hunting experience.



sounds good and a bit of logic and acted on the feedback from the forums which is nice to see a game listening to its paying customers unlike a lot of games now days.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
there is blood splatter if you shoot a animal and its either wounded or dead also bullet marks entry wounds . you actually use the blood trail to track the wounded animal if it escapes


no at moment theres only single player but multi - co op keeps coming up but its not a game where you want everyone running round ruining your hunt . there are competitions all the time in game and you can speak to anyone in game as well with live chat built in the game. bit like live xfire lol
Click to expand...

What do you press to activate the live chat? Or do you have to be a paying customer?

Also - can you get this game on mac?
 
yes just do as above press once to start convo one to send .

you must have people in your friends list to talk to them. its free part of the game
 
Status Update - 19th Mar 2010

Postby Stefan Pettersson on Wed May 19, 2010 7:24 pm
This is exactly the situation I feared. Wednesday evening, the forum counter for users online reaches significantly higher numbers than on other weekdays and I have no internet connection.

Fortunately I'm prepared, writing this on my laptop connected over bluetooth to my phone which in turn is connected to the internet. I'm glad I don't need to upload anything to Youtube this time, likely skyrocketing my phonebill (yes, as someone pointed out, another solution would be that I actually write and post these updates while at the office and not at home during the evenings). ;)

Enough rambling, lets get on with the important stuff...

The Update

Delayed, it is not, I'm happy to say (gotcha? ;)).

We are putting the last pieces into place and are testing them. One of them is the update and patch system. Although this update will require a heavy 600MB+ download we want to be able to push out future updates using small patches instead. This is especially important with this release since there are so many changes and a lot of inherited stuff that almost inevitable something is bound to go wrong. Combination humans and software development, better be safe than sorry. ;) The patch system will allow us to swiftly deal with new issues, as well as facilitate future feature updates through small patches downloaded by the launcher.

Talking about downloads... We will release the update during the next week, we will try to get it out early in the week to have time to fix any issues before the weekend (hopefully there will be none). To ease the load on the servers and avoid expensive bandwidth peaks we will announce here in the forum slightly before the release how you can get your hands on the new client, before it is automatically pushed out via the launcher when the switch is made to the new version.

Updated Fansite Kit

We've updated the fansite kit with new screenshots and new logos. It is not yet available on the website, but you may get it here already now.

Finally...

We do not intend to stop with these weekly Status Updates just because the update is released. We still believe in an open and honest communication, and the feedback we get on these posts are invaluable.

Next week will be exciting, let's end with a quote...

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.






so all in all very good news update for next week ! so dig out your hunting stuff felow hunters :cool: supposed to be about 600 mb in size
 
Change Log - Logger's Point Update

New postby Lion Martinez on Mon May 24, 2010 2:09 pm
This is the Change Log for the Logger's Point-update. All major changes to gameplay is listed below.



NEW MAP AREAS

Logger's Point - 5 square miles of new playable areas



NEW ANIMALS

The Feral Hog
The Blacktail Deer



NEW ITEMS

Hog hunting scent
Blacktail buck urine spray
Blacktail doe urine spray
Lever action rifle scope



ADDITIONS

The Shooting ranges now have wooden platforms. When standing on them and shooting, no ammo is used and no statistics are updated. You cannot harm animals while standing on the platform.

Turkey scorecard now exists

Track color option! - There is now a dropdown box at the bottom of the settings app where you can select red or blue track indicators.

CHANGES

* "Prone aiming". It is now possible to aim downwards (still restricted at a certain angle).
* All animals are now registred, even outside of render range.
* Animals never spawn at the same position twice.
* Animals killed in the water should float and be washed ashore.
* Coyotes don't scare other animals as much.
* In the statistics page, the column "Number of kills" showed the number of confirmed kills. The column is now called "Confirmed kills".
* The bow has been tweaked.
* Minor changes to Whitehart spawnmap. There should now be a little more animals on the southern island.
* The 4x32 rifle scope has a new reticle.
* Animals don't leave bedding clues when dead
* Fixed a bug causing clue highlights to remain after restarting at lodge or campsite.
* The turkey skinning has been fixed ( rendering ).
* The hunting towers sound is now woody.
* Only calm animals call.
* Animals don't walk/trott in circles after being scared.
* Lever action rifle sound fix.
* The elk cows are a little more alert.
* Animals are generally nervous a longer period of time.
* Animals are a a bit more alert when nervous.
* Removed sound indicator in the hunter mate. There's now a "paw"-icon for clue registering insted of the previous red dot.
* Turkeys have spurs on their legs.
* Animals should be able to get closer to the towers without getting spooked.
* Reworked all deer textures (fur colours and variation tweaked and variations added).
* Added a message box if the game cannot connect to the server, instead of just shutting down.
* Added Elk texture variations .
* Whitetail doe head/neck proportions tweaked
* Improved footstep on stone sound.
* Added a rainbow to the weather system.
* Improved skinning on player arms.
* Animals shot in the water float towards land + Increased the confirm kill range when near the sea.
* Decals are visible at a greater distance and stay for a longer time.
* The Huntermate is rendered slightly smaller.
* Improved cheat prevention.

...and many minor tweaks and bug fixes.


been on all day chatting with fellow hunters and devs absolutley awesome loads of new things coming and lots of little treats.

they are uploading to sites ready for the off just noonne has confirmed actual day this week off release yet.
 
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