Aug 19, 2021

Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Cry_Ic3man2k

Hunters,

Below are the notes for Update 1.6.1:

New Accessibility Options

This update brings with it a refactor to the weapon handling system in Hunt. This new system is more solid and should give us much more flexibility when it comes to adding new accessibility features for all platforms.

General

Leave ADS during shots

We have made it possible to leave the ADS (Aim down sights) state while your weapon is in the recoil phase of the shot animation. Previously, you were locked to ADS until the weapon was finished firing. This change will make you more agile as soon as you stop aiming. This only works with ADS and does not impact switching equipment which will remain as it is.

Force Reload for Controllers

It is now possible to force a reload when using a controller, even if there are interactable items nearby. While the weapon wheel is open, other interactions in front of you will be ignored. By tapping [LB] before you tap [X] (L1 and Square on PS) to reload you can ensure that the reload gets priority over any other interactions.

This will be especially helpful in enclosed spaces such as the hunting towers, which have a lot of interactions close together, making it difficult to find a way to reload without opening every window or climbing a ladder unintentionally.

Gunslinger control changes

Lower weapon

Added the ability to lower weapons/items while using Gunslinger (like Hunter mode).
Holding [Q] will lower the weapon (tapping [Q] will still perform the quick weapon switch).
Shooting is still possible, however there is a slight delay due to having to raise the weapon first (you will not need multiple inputs to raise the weapon).

Keep lowered State (Menu setting)

Option added to the settings menu.
Select what should happen when weapons are aimed or fired while Lowered State is toggled on
Options:
- Enabled – Weapons automatically transition back to Lowered State after being aimed or fired
- Disabled– Weapons need to be manually lowered again after being aimed or fired

Hunter control Changes

Dedicated Melee button

Dedicated melee button [V] is now available in Hunter mode (no longer a Gunslinger only option).
Works in parallel to standard melee attacks.
Allows you to perform melee attacks when in Shoulder Aim or ADS where attack inputs could only fire the weapon

Sprint to Aim transition

An option that allows you to determine what happens when an aim input is issued while sprinting:
- Specifically, if you have ADS/Sprint assigned to the same button (current default setting [L-Shift])
Drop down menu Options:
- Shoulder Aim – Interrupting sprint will go to shoulder aim as normal.
- Aim Down Sights – Interrupting sprint will go directly to ADS as long as the sprint input is still pressed.

Shoulder Aim toggle

Added a drop-down menu option that allows you to set “Shoulder Aim” to ‘Toggle’ instead of ‘Hold’.

The follow applies to Hunter control Scheme only:

It is now possible to start sprinting while shoulder Aim is toggled ‘on’ in the following circumstances:
- If the weapon cannot ADS (Throwables, Bomb Lance, throwing knives and other items that do not have an ADS option)
- If sprint and Aim Down Sights are assigned to different buttons.

Auto-Interact

New menu option that when enabled allows you to continuously hold the interaction button.
When holding this, it will automatically trigger interactions when you come close to an item.
Great for holding the interaction when running at doors or past windows (easier to open/close).
Effect will be enabled after pressing the button for 0.25 seconds, so it is still possible to single tap certain interactions without accidentally triggering everything around you.
Option is disabled by default.

FOV options

This update brings some FOV changes that we feel have been restricting for some players. Console has been limited to a wide base FOV and does not zoom in when shoulder aiming.
Gunslinger on PC has a similar problem, where the FOV is narrow which means that even with the slider set to max, it is still not equal to that of the Hunter Scheme FOV.
With this in mind, we are adding two new customization options which are available to all platforms and all control schemes.

Lowered State FOV with two options - ‘Default’ or ‘Zoom’.
Shoulder Aim FOV with two options - Default’ or ‘Zoom’.

With these settings you can now recreate all the current control scheme zoom defaults on all platforms. (Please note: For technical reasons, console still does not have the standard FOV slider, but these should allow you to adjust everything else around the current FOV.)
Default sensitivity sliders are also now available in the Gunslinger scheme and will be used whenever the current weapon is not aiming, similar to how it currently works in the Hunter scheme.

New Menu Animations

With this update we are bringing some life to the Hunter poses to the Lobby and Death screen and Legendary Hunter store pages with a plethora of newly hand-crafted animations. We love to showcase the work our artists have created and now we have a new way to achieve this with these unique animations.

Weapon equip animation – All Hunters will now have an “equip” animation that will show in the lobby screen instead of the static poses, allowing the Hunters to show off your chosen gear in style.
Legendary intros - Legendary Hunters now feature a signature intro animation that fits their character which gives them an impressive way to show-off. These signature animations will be visible in the Lobby (or when you join a group) as well as on the Death screen. All animations can be previewed in the Legendary Hunter store page. When in a lobby, Legendary hunters will play their signature move followed by the equip animation for the currently selected weapon.

Developer Note:

Currently all Hunters will perform the weapon animations generally tied to Tier 3 Hunters. We plan to introduce new animations for the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Hunters in the future.

New 'Bounty Revive' mechanic

Bounty carriers will now have the option to revive a “redskulled” teammate that has lost all their health chunks.

The action for reviving a “redskulled” teammate will drain 25 HP per revive, like the necromancer trait.
A revived player will return with a maximum of 50HP (always with one large health chunk).
It is not possible to perform this action over distance with the Necromancer trait. You must physically interact with the “redskulled” teammate to take advantage of this ability.
Bounty revives don't reward "Revive XP"
Team extraction is now also blocked if a dead hunter is in the extraction range:
- If a living teammate has any bounty token - reviving the dead hunter is possible in this case.
- If this dead hunter has any bounty token. Reviving would be possible after their teammates picked up their bounty token.
- Killing a hunter who was previously “redskulled” and revived will not grant any further XP and will not count as a kill towards your KDA.
- The kills will still be tracked separately in the mission summary screen.
- Deaths/downs will count towards the KDA of the player being killed, even after being revived from being “redskulled”.
- Loot: Money is not lootable from “redskulled” players. You can loot tools and consumables as normal.

Developer Note:

With this feature we want to address some issues that we see in the core loop of Bounty Hunt missions and give players new considerations when making tactical decisions at the same time.
Currently, picking up bounty tokens yields huge advantages initially but can become the opposite very quickly after the boost is depleted which is why bounty tokens are often left unattended in the early game.

We want to incentivize carrying bounty more by tipping the chances of surviving battles of attrition slightly towards the team which focuses on the main objective. Keep in mind that reviving dead players with bounty will be even riskier than it already is. Healing resources will run out at some point and bounty carriers are still marked on the map.

Another benefit we see is that there should now be more reasons for dead players to stay in the game and root for their teammates because as long as there is bounty in the match, there is also the possibility to extract together.

We have seen many suggestions for similar mechanics that mentioned other costs for reviving dead players like depleting bounty boost or trading health chunks. However, we feel that this would only lead to friction in teams as players would make other players responsible for having to pay a price for their mistakes.

Gunplay

Item Deployment Validation

It is now possible to place Trip Wire Traps on stairs and steep slopes (Up to 45°).
Improvement made to the collision detection for Beartraps and Ammo Boxes.

Item Deployment Preview

Improved the visual fidelity of deployment preview models
- Preview models are now correctly shaded and react to level lighting as intended.
- Preview colors changed from green/red to white/red to better fit in to Hunt's color palette
- Bear trap is now previewed in primed state

Round start Changes

Hunters will now play the weapon equip animation at the start of the round.
All weapon actions (except shooting and melee attacks) are now available to use during the “Waiting for Players” state.
- This means you can reload weapons that are not fully loaded or switch ammo types before the start of the round.

Hunter

Health Chunks

Reduced the cost of 50HP health chunks to 2 trait points (previously 3 trait points).

Now it is possible to choose between "toggle" or "hold" to see the Map.

Traits

General trait changes

Updated the random traits tied to Legendary Hunter recruits (more options/combinations available).
Updated the possible traits that can be acquired from closing Rifts in Quickplay.

Bolt-seer

We have enhanced the visibility (and fixed some broken outlines) of items that show in Dark Sight when this trait Is equipped. Now, it will be much easier to find your lost bolts, throwing knives and… “other” items. (*cough* #LightTheShadow *cough*)
Range increased to 30m (previously 15m)

Meta

Additional weapon stat

Sighted Range
- “The range at which the projectile drop will impact your accuracy in relation to the sights of the weapon”.

Developer note:
We have introduced this stat to allow players to have a better understanding of how they can use the weapon sights in relation to bullet drop (for example Crossbows, Bomblance) and thus allowing for better opportunities to hit their intended targets.
We also want to make you aware that the “Effective Range” stat for Shotbolt ammo for Crossbows and the Bomblance has been removed as their projectile damage is not modified by distance like other projectiles in the game.

World

DeSalle:

Reworked the Generator Hut in Fort Bolden and extended the Tunnel Entrance below it to go into the Boss pit building.
Attached the Spotlight in the ceiling area of Darin Shipyard to the generator to be activated when the generator is turned on.
Updated the Spider Navigation in Fort Bolden
Barricaded the bottom floor see-through windows in Pearl Plantation as they were giving an unfair advantage.
Closed off one of the buildings in the village next to the Pearl Plantation.

Performance & Stability

Reduced game’s memory consumption by roughly 80Mb which is especially relevant for Consoles.

Audio

Ambient audio should now play on all parts of DeSalle as expected
Improvements made to the fading of different ambient sounds on DeSalle and Lawson Delta

General Improvements made to the AI systems.
Fixed a potential stall that could occur when Miner Grunts first spawned in the map.
Miner grunts will now correctly burst into flames when dying to any sort of full body mutilation such as: Concertina Wire, Bomb Lance, etc.

Gunplay

Fixed an issue where some explosive ammo was unable to destroy concertina wires.
Fixed an issue where explosive ammo did not deal enough damage to doors and windows
Fixed a bug that resulted in custom ammo not being able to break windows.

World

Stillwater Bayou:

Fixed a Spot in Cyprus Huts where the player could hide inside the boss lair without being attacked by it.
Fixed an issue that caused the crank-operated gate to clip through the ceiling in Port Reeker.

DeSalle:

Fixed an issue that would cause the wooden crates that appear at an extraction point to appear at South of Reeves Quarry, even when the extract is not there.
Fixed an issue that resulted in not being able to vault through a window in Darin Shipyard.
Fixed an area in Reeves Quarry that allowed players to crouch and end up in an unintended spot.
Fixed an Issue where some Floors in Seven Sister's Estate would not render correctly.
Fixed a bug where some oilpatches north of Pearl Plantation were not connected to each other.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from interacting with a world tool spawn in Heritage Pork.
Fixed a bug in Fort Bolden that registered players as finding the boss arena when outside of the actual arena.
Fixed a bug where the player could get on top of a chandelier in Pearl Plantation.
Fixed a bug in Darin Shipyard where the player could get stuck behind a cash register.
Fixed an issue where some assets would disappear when crossing the region-border from King Snake Mine to Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a broken vaultable area in one of the side buildings around Forked River Fishery.
Fixed an issue that could result in players getting stuck in a spot next to lamp north of Weeping Stone Mill.
Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck between a door and a table in Weeping Stone Mill.
Fixed an invisible chain in Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a few floating loot items that would appear around the map.
Fixed a bug that prevented players from placing traps on wooden floors in Forked River Fishery.
Fixed the audio that would play when walking on the pipes in Forked River Fishery (it now sounds like pipes and not wooden planks).
Fixed floating branch spawns across the map
Fixed issue where the saloon doors could get stuck if you walk slowly in front of it and stop.
Fixed an issue that caused lantern effects being created incorrectly.

Fixed a bug that resulted in the active buffs persisting on the screen once down and spectating.
Fixed an issue where pressing esc in any tab/subtab while queueing for a match triggered the cancel matchmaking pop up.
Fixed a spelling mistake in Russian translation of the Blackcoat hunter.
Status effect intensity will now also be displayed in spectator mode.
Fixed rare bug where “You are being revived!” message was stuck on screen.

Dying to a poison cloud or poison trip mine will result in seeing an empty death screen.
Concertina wire can damage players through walls.
Death from bleeding damage caused by AI can show as killing yourself in the damage history on the death screen.
In some cases, the banish state and extraction state can show the incorrect details. This is purely a visual issue. The normal status will continue as intended in the background.
Bleeding damage ticks do not register on the death screen in the damage history.
Holding the RMB while switching to a tool does not allow you to immediately prepare a heavy melee attack.
In some cases, concertina wire may not break reliably when hit.
In some cases, melee damage may not show a hit marker however the damage will still register.
Some inconsistencies may be experienced in terms of sensitivity while using gunslinger mode. Melee and weapon turn speeds are slightly different.
Gunslinger: Performing a heavy melee attack while you stop sprinting results in returning to the incorrect stance (should return to hipfire stance).
Gunslinger: In some cases, players can shoot by pressing melee button after spamming a combination of different actions.
Preparing a weapon while in Gunslinger can result in being unable to melee.
In some cases, while in gunslinger returning to ADS after cancelling a reload can require too many inputs.
Chaining shots while using gunslinger mode is less reliable than in Hunter mode.
Switching between fire modes on the LeMat may result in a weird looping audio and cause you to not to return to your previous stance.
In some cases, switching to another weapon (looting) can result in the dropped weapon falling under the floor.
In some cases, switching weapons while vaulting will result in not seeing your weapon in your hands. Swapping weapons again will solve this issue.
In some cases, the clones of the Assassin may become stuck and will not attack players.
In some rare cases, the Bomblance will not deal area of effect damage.
When attempting to join a Quickplay match, after leaving a team, the “please wait” might change back to red requiring you to press Play again.
In some rare cases, the spider may become stuck beneath the floor after jumping on a player.
In some rare cases, a health pack can spawn on a clue which will prevent you from correctly investigating it.
Training tab can become stuck under other UI elements when leaving the training selections screen. Opening the training tab again will resolve this.
In some cases, while in the “waiting for players” screen, it is possible for AI to attack.
Shooting a hive bomb that is floating on the water (with a shotgun) can result in multiple instances of the swarm.
In some cases, cancelling a reload will cause you to melee instead of shoot in cases where the right mouse button is held down.
Spectator mode: Aiming state of the player does not always line up with what is visible while in spectator mode.
Trials: In some cases, when replaying an earlier trial mission, you might spawn in with less health chunks than intended.
In some cases, crows may react to player noise later than intended. If there is a lot of occlusion between you and the crows, they can also be hard to hear.
In some cases, the crosshair for the throwing knives can disappear during gameplay.
Challenges: Kill 50 bosses is incorrectly tracked by the killing blow rather than participation.
In some cases, the crosshair may not change dynamically when switching between aiming modes and can become stuck at the smaller size.
In some cases, after being revived or if a weapon is swapped with a Winfield equipped, the server will register might register that it has no ammo.
Tutorial: Consumable replenishment may be incorrect after respawning.
Lootable weapons sometimes drop to close to each other making it difficult to loot the correct one.
In some cases, if you are unable to loot a weapon it is because the client registers that it fell in a different place than is shown on the screen.
Quickplay: Looting a new tool can replace and already existing empty tool, rather than taking up the next available slot.
In some instances, players may become stuck in a slow walking state.
Quickplay: Picking up a small weapon while performing a switch to a larger weapon results in swapping the wrong item.
In some cases, a looted item will still appear on the blue boxes in Quickplay even after another player has taken it. You will not be able to interact with these items.
Some geometry layers may not be correct when spectating.
In some cases, swapping weapons while in Gunslinger mode can cause the crosshair to disappear.
In some cases, where all consumable slots are full, you may not be able to purchase consumable items other than the one in the first slot.
Challenges: Hunters that are damaged by other players but receive a killing blow from AI count towards the total. This is not intended and should only add to the total when the killing blow is caused by a player.

Aug 10, 2021

Ammo range changes

Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Cry_Chancellor

Hunters, today we want to go into detail about our recent range changes to long and medium ammo as well as other balancing changes to some of the custom ammo types. Find out what we have changed and why!

Range Increase

With Update 1.6 and the release of our brand new map, we created more opportunities to use long-range weapons thanks to the increased verticality you'll find throughout DeSalle. However, it can be really frustrating to land that extremely long-range headshot with your sniper rifle, only to find out that the shot doesn't take down your target because it is beyond the weapon's effective range.

So, we have made some changes, as follows:

Medium ammo lifetime was increased to 350 meters (previously 300m)
Long ammo lifetime was increased to 500 meters (previously 300m)

This range increase opens up even more gameplay variety, in particular for those that really enjoy sniping as well as giving long ammo rifles a solid performance boost at distance. It adds much more value to medium ammo snipers like the recently added Winfield 1876 Centennial Sniper too. These changes also brought some pretty impressive increases to the Effective Range for other weapons. For example, the Sparks LRR now has a maximum effective range of 347m (previously 250m), and the Vetterli Karabiner 71 now sits at 203m (previously 167m).

It is important to note that these changes do not have much of an impact at close range and, for the most part, mean that the bullet will retain more of its original damage at longer distances now.

Custom Ammo

While working on these range changes, we took a hard look at some of the current custom ammo types to see if their performance matches our original design intent. With Update 1.6, we felt changes were needed, so we removed some of the penalties tied to certain ammo types, such as Incendiary and DumDum ammo, to name just two. You can check out more details in the 1.6 Update notes. Following that, we started looking into FMJ and Spitzer ammo. We realized that we wanted these ammo types to have a clearer and more defined combat role, especially given the changes we made to the default medium, and long ammo ranges mentioned previously.

FMJ (Full Metal Jacket)

Alongside its improved penetration power over regular ammo, we wanted to give FMJ a bit more range to make it more interesting for those highly skilled marksmen out there amongst you. This update saw an increase to the damage drop-off range, meaning that it will keep more damage over

longer distances than before Update 1.6, and roughly a 10% increase to the Effective Range for lethal headshots in the case of FMJ medium ammo, for example.

As you can see from the graph below, the FMJ now keeps its base damage for up to 40m more compared to the regular ammo, which starts to decrease at around 20m. This is great for extending headshot range but comes at the cost of reduced projectile speed. The further out your target, the more you need to lead your shot.

Spitzer

With Spitzer ammo, we had a very clear goal in mind – establish this as the go-to option for long-range sniping. It's only available for modern rifles that can make effective use of such a powerful cartridge without damaging itself. We felt that we were not delivering on this sufficiently yet, and Spitzer often felt like it would be less effective than regular ammo at range.

We decided to adjust the fall-off curve somewhat, resulting in an overall increase in Effective Range to allow successful headshots at even greater distances. For the Lebel rifle, Effective Range increased by 14m, while for the Mosin-Nagant, it increased by 16m. In the graph below, you can see a comparison with the Spitzer (grey line) and base long ammo (blue line).

While Spitzer rounds are close to how a modern rifle round would perform, in practice, that results in smaller wounds due to the higher projectile speed and stability in flight, compared to the early bullet designs represented by regular ammo. So, while less powerful overall, Spitzer ammo gets its time to shine at distance where it retains its power much better, shown in detail in the graph below of the drop-off rate after 100m.

Overall ranges for base ammo

In a previous blog, where we discussed the weapon systems, we provided some extra detail on the max ranges for the standard weapons. Below is an updated chart that reflects the current max ranges:

Type - Max Range

Compact - 300
Medium - 350
Long - 500
Shotgun - 40
Nitro - 300

In the previous chart, we also included bullet velocity as a universal value for each ammo type. However, throughout Hunt's development, we have been able to refine the gunplay mechanics further. Instead of having them tied directly to the bullet, each weapon now determines the max bullet velocity, close to real-world specs. This allowed us to give each weapon a more distinct character and provide more differences between similar weapons for players to consider when making their loadout selections.

So, there is only one thing left to do after all that – get in the Bayou and DeSalle and shoot stuff! As always, your input is very important to us, so we look forward to hearing all your feedback.

Happy Hunting!

~Your Hunt: Showdown Community Team
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