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13 days
ago -
Hunt: Showdown
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Transcript (by Youtube)
| 3s | Hi, I'm |
|---|---|
| 4s | David Fifield, the general manager for the Hunt franchise. |
| 7s | Today we're going to run you through some highlights of our new user |
| 10s | interface. |
| 15s | Overall, |
| 15s | we are always striving to improve based on community sentiment, |
| 18s | survey results, engagement data, and our own long hours of play. |
| 22s | To put it plainly, our old system grew in incremental steps out of short- |
| 26s | term necessity and rapid update, repair, and repeat cycles. |
| 29s | Over time, it's become less intuitive and more complicated and overwhelming |
| 33s | for new players to engage and learn. |
| 35s | Redundant pages and scattered frameworks |
| 37s | changing from one screen to the next have been showing their age for a while. |
| 40s | The need to streamline that process into something |
| 43s | that feels easier and more natural to navigate was important to us. |
| 50s | We are committed to creating an experience that is accessible |
| 53s | and more intuitive for all our players across PC and console platforms. |
| 57s | Since Hunt: Showdown was originally designed for and launched on PC, |
| 61s | there have been clear challenges in place from the beginning for console players. |
| 64s | Addressing these issues has been the biggest goal overall. |
| 67s | Another important point was to remove or pause features that have not added |
| 71s | enough value to make room for reworks and new functionality. |
| 74s | Crafting a scalable UI framework that facilitates growth |
| 77s | with consistent control and navigation has been central to the rework. |
| 85s | To better service the console player base, |
| 87s | we prioritize the minimalist approach. |
| 89s | Key screens are built on |
| 90s | proven and tested patterns from other cross-platform apps and products. |
| 94s | This new version offers |
| 95s | a more consistent navigation experience and better information architecture. |
| 100s | Overall, the most important change has been the removal of the console cursor. |
| 104s | Directional pad navigation replaces the stick-driven cursor of the old UI. |
| 108s | You are now able to navigate the entirety of all available options with the up, |
| 112s | down, left, and right buttons or directional keys. |
| 115s | We've also added an actions menu tray, so controller players have access |
| 120s | to shortcuts and actions more readily without a need to point and click. |
| 123s | PC players can use directional keys, shortcuts, or just use the cursor |
| 127s | and mouse click to access whatever components they want. |
| 130s | Additionally, we're refining the visual presentation |
| 133s | to better showcase hunters' gear and stats. |
| 136s | Everything is better tied together and more consistent for |
| 139s | a less confusing experience. |
| 144s | As mentioned before, part of the process of this |
| 146s | rebuild was to identify which features should be removed |
| 150s | not just from the interface, but from the product altogether. |
| 153s | The first to discuss is Questlines, which have already been paused |
| 156s | since the spring of last year. |
| 158s | While promising at first, they were too expensive to maintain |
| 161s | and trailed off into dormancy in favor of events and battle passes. |
| 164s | Experiments are being considered |
| 166s | for smaller challenges and chase items that run in parallel or between events, |
| 170s | but we will not be returning to the old Questlines layout or systems. |
| 175s | The second is the entire Library tab, which includes |
| 178s | the monster and weapon books along with mastery tracking systems. |
| 181s | We are working on replacement systems for progress |
| 183s | tracking or rewards related to weapons and monsters, |
| 186s | but those will not be online for the August launch. |
| 190s | The next feature being |
| 191s | removed from both the UI and the entire product is Trials Mode. |
| 195s | Over the years, |
| 196s | Trials Mode has seen very low engagement rates and has even been tracked in data |
| 200s | as a contributing factor for players quitting the game completely. |
| 203s | The bespoke rewards for cosmetics and blood bonds that exist in Trials |
| 206s | Mode are being reassigned to other progression-based challenges, |
| 210s | such as prestige or other challenges yet to be revealed. |
| 214s | And last on the cut list is the Black Market feature. |
| 217s | While the Black Market provided some interesting alternatives |
| 220s | to acquire deeply discounted cosmetics, it has been found to be |
| 223s | too confusing and more of a bother than a quality feature. |
| 226s | In its place, |
| 227s | we will simply put more items on discount through the Direct Store page, |
| 230s | which can be more easily found by filtering for discounts |
| 233s | without the added gate of a sequential list. |
| 240s | Now let's dive into some of the new features that you can look forward to. |
| 243s | To start, we've simplified hunter recruitment |
| 245s | and roster management based on volumes of player feedback. |
| 249s | The recruitment process itself is being more unified, with a clear choice |
| 253s | to either recruit |
| 254s | a free hunter with a single trait and some basic contraband weapons, |
| 257s | or pay 100 Hunt Dollars to hire a more veteran hunter with three traits |
| 261s | and no weapons. |
| 262s | A host of hunter skins previously recruited at tier 2 or 3, |
| 266s | and many new and reworked versions, are now being given bespoke names |
| 270s | and will function in the same way current Legendary Hunters do. |
| 273s | These newly named and updated hunters can be unlocked for recruitment via |
| 277s | Bloodline and Prestige rewards, specific challenges, and Blood Bond purchase. |
| 281s | Once unlocked, they can be hired and rehired for Hunt Dollars |
| 284s | with the same systems in place for the current Legendary Hunters, |
| 288s | which are being reclassified as just hunters |
| 290s | with varying degrees of rarity and visual complexity. |
| 294s | The new UI features both a simple carousel and grid view, which allows for 39 |
| 299s | hunters to be shown at the same time, as well as scrolling for larger rosters. |
| 303s | The traits menu has been improved by allowing more traits to be visible |
| 307s | in a grid view. |
| 308s | With all trait icons now consistently displayed with the option of favoriting |
| 312s | your preferred traits, some new mechanics and a glossary are being developed |
| 316s | to better explain classification of traits such as burn traits and scarce traits. |
| 321s | Dennis will be back in another video with more details on these |
| 324s | in the coming weeks. |
| 325s | As mentioned earlier, |
| 326s | the long-requested filter for favoriting is being carried across more menus. |
| 330s | This greatly speeds up finding and selecting |
| 332s | your favorite hunters, traits, gear, and loadouts quickly. |
| 336s | Our new store will make |
| 337s | browsing for new cosmetics smoother, with neatly contained sections and filters |
| 341s | so that you can find what you're looking for more quickly. |
| 349s | For added |
| 349s | convenience, our new actions menu flyout provides quick access |
| 353s | to critical features for both PC and console players. |
| 357s | It reduces the number of clicks and button pushes |
| 359s | needed to get where you're wanting to go, or take actions on selected items. |
| 363s | Great care has been taken to enhance the visual design, highlighting |
| 366s | the game's art and reducing overall UI complexity. |
| 375s | And lastly, for today, we've implemented a new health bar respec. |
| 379s | Since we removed any Blood Bond task to respec the health bar, |
| 382s | as the feature has been used exponentially more often, the clear pain point |
| 386s | of having to confirm each bar as you respec them has been corrected. |
| 390s | The further common request of being able to just pre-configure them |
| 393s | for all recruited hunters is not yet available, |
| 395s | but is being considered for the future. |
| 400s | We can't wait |
| 400s | for you all to experience the new UI for yourselves. |
| 403s | We sincerely hope it is a substantial improvement, |
| 406s | especially for our console players who've long endured |
| 408s | the awkwardness of driving a cursor with a gamepad controller. |
| 412s | We've got plenty more new information to share in the coming weeks, |
| 415s | so keep an eye out for more video and social channel updates. |