[2019] Update 1.0 (Test Server) - Highlights and Known Issues

Version: v1.0
SteambuildID: 4037174
Client patch size: ~ 15GB

Hunters,

Here are the update notes for Update 1.0 on the test server. Please note that due to the size of this update, the notes will be spread across multiple announcements. This first post will contain the highlights and known issues. Please note: The known issues listed are the most critical, and does not represent a comprehensive list.

Important: For the purposes of this testing phase, we would ask to only use English as the language for the game. Much of the localization for other languages is currently not in place and in some instances, a different language will prevent you from unlocking entries in the book of weapons and Book of Monsters.

• 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 male and 2 female legendary character skins as well as 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.

To help us test the waters with this addition, we have decided to only allow teams of three through friends invite on steam. This will mean that you will only able to form teams of three with those on your friends list but we plan to expand this to allow random trios post 1.0.

We hope that you enjoying both playing with, and against trios and as always are looking forward to you sharing your feedback on this new addition. This is a great chance to tell our friends about the game and try out the game with this new feature. We are counting on you – our community – to spread the word about teams of three to make this the best possible 1.0 launch that it can be.

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.
    
  • 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, version2.0. 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[www.huntshowdown.com]”

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.

Please let us know your thoughts and feedback on the legendary content, as well as which hunters and weapons you enjoy the most.

• In cases where hardware cannot constantly maintain 60FPS, Vsync can sometimes cause the frame rate cap to quickly alternate between 60 and 30, causing apparent stuttering. Disabling Vsync should solve this issue.
  
• All control settings will be wiped and set back to default. Players are required to configure their sensitivity and button mapping again.
  
• Game clients might crash rarely after the mission loads, or during gameplay.
  
• Player might encounter desync issues, rubberbanding or disconnects during gameplay.
  
• Please contact our support team if this happens to you on the Test Server.
  
• Clicking on the contract on the Bounty Hunt screen doesn’t take the player to the actual contract selection screen; this needs to be accessed via the Contracts tab.
  
• Some contraband weapons, tools and consumables cannot be unequipped anymore. Equip another item in order to switch it.
  
• Tutorial screens might pop up twice for new players while navigating through the UI.
  
• The in-game leaderboards currently don’t function and are not populated yet.
  
• Missions might start without all players being ready if clients have a very long loading time.
  
• Spamming the ready/unready button can lead to the player getting kicked out of the team/group.
  
• Depending on loading times, players may still see world assets streaming in after the initial black screen during the mission start.
  
• Walking on very steep slopes can cause desync issues.
  
• The current Min – Max FPS margin can be quite significant.
  
• Mouse cursor might be invisible in menu (or displayed during a mission) if game runs in fullscreen and player tabs out during loading screens.
  
• There is still a rare chance that objects are randomly not rendered.
  
• The Meathead often doesn’t play a death animation, but just drops instantly to the ground after being killed.
  
• There is a low chance that gunshots from other player are not audible (but muzzle vfx are visible).
  
• Kill assist accolade is currently not displayed in the mission summary.
  
• The summary screen can sometimes display an incorrect amount of AI kills.
  
• In some rare cases, the banishment timer may show 100% for some players, while the banishment is still in progress.
  
• Hold action indicator may not always be in sync with the actual time needed to complete the action; usually in these cases the action will be performed slightly earlier than indicated.
  
• Death by damage from ingame razor wire doesn’t currently show correct information in the death screen.
  
• Finding the boss in the tutorial before collecting all clues leads to incorrect tutorial hints.
  
• After completing the tutorial mission, the region selection prompt might get displayed on top of the tutorial summary screen.
  
• "Back to Lobby" is not displayed consistently in the UI if the player is NOT in the lobby screen.
  
• Tools and consumables cannot be swapped via the equip button, the need to be unequipped first.
  
• Legendary weapons unlocked with blood bonds that are not yet unlocked in the Book of Weapons have a missing lock symbol.
  
• Trying to buy an item that is not unlocked yet shows an incorrect/misleading error message.
  
• Winfield Silencer Mastery 1 doesn't show its unlock condition in the Book of Weapons.
  
• Bolts / traps are currently not visible through walls using the Vigilante / Boltseer trait.
  
• Lobby chat might intersect/overlap with other UI elements depending on UI navigation done while in a lobby.
  
• UI text may contain placeholders in various areas.

Part 2 of the update notes can be found here:

Part 3 of the update notes can be found here.


~Happy Hunting.