Nov 18, 2021

Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Cry_Ic3man2k

Made some adjustments in AI perception to make them more correctly assess visibility ranges.
General pass on fixing some minor animation glitches on AI.
Upwards and downwards sight-range decreased a bit on the Meathead so his escalation will be a bit more lenient when players are on top of buildings.
Fixed an issue whereby Meathead was sometimes not responding properly to Leeches getting killed.
Assassin will now properly take damage again from explosives when in his swarm state.
More fixes to increase stability of AI navigation system to prevent server crash.
Fix for Sticky Bomb sometimes not doing desired amount of damage to any of the bosses.
Fixed an issue whereby the Immolator would sometimes explode a little bit later after death.

Gunplay

Fixed an issue where a player could be seen empty handed or with an incorrect item on other players screens
Fixed an issue where no visual effect would be played when retrieving sticking items from enemy players or AI (e.g.: when retrieving a throwing knife from a meatheat).
Fixed an issue where weapons animation didn’t play in training or trials until the first weapon switch happened.
Minor server improvement in performance for computing explosion fall-out.
Fixed an issue where choke bombs could be destroyed by liquid firebombs in deep water

Hunter

Fixed an inconsistency in the display text when failing to interact with certain ammo boxes with full ammo
Fixed an issue where players could damage themselves if they take a bolt or arrow shot into them
Fixed an issue where picking up a clue with Conduit, while burning, would not stop you from burning.

World

Stillwater Bayou:

Fixed a bug that could cause the Butcher to be able to leave the boss lair in Reynard Mill & Lumber.
Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck between rocks in Stillwater Bend.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck between tree roots in Darrow Livestock.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck at a barrel cart in Lockbay Docks.
Closed a wall gap in the western building of Reynard Mill & Lumber.

Lawson Delta:

Fixed a bug where the Spider could get stuck between weapon crates in Wolfshead Arsenal boss lair.
Fixed a floating ladder in Maw Battery.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck in the bunker at Sweetbell Flour.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck inside the big silo of Blanc Brinery.
Fixed a floating barrel in Maw Battery.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck inside Windy Run.
Fixed a wrongly placed crate in Sweetbell Flour.
Fixed a floating explosive barrel south of Hemlock and Hide.
Added a small ramp onto the hay bale south of Lawson Station Waiting Hall.
Closed a gap in Brickworks north-west side of the boss lair due to it giving an unfair advantage.

DeSalle:

Fixed a bug where players could get stuck in a hay bale in Seven Sisters Estate.
Fixed a bug where the Butcher was able to leave the boss lair in Forked River Fishery.
Fixed a non-interactable cash register in Darin Shipyard.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck at the entrance/exit in Testimonial Church.
Removed a floating rope in a cabin between Darin Shipyard and Reeves Quarry.
Fixed a floating lantern spawn in Upper DeSalle.
Fixed a floating rock piece in Lower DeSalle.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck between two carts and a hay bale in Moses Poultry.
Fixed a non-interactable cash register in Pearl Plantation.
Fixed a bug where a cart was not climbable in Weeping Stone Mill.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck under a staircase in Weeping Stone Mill.
Fixed a bug where players could desync at the platform elevator and get killed by it in Darin Shipyard.
Fixed a bug where players could hide inside a boss dressing in Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a specific flock of crows north of Pearl Plantation not behaving correctly.
Fixed some floating rocks at a spawn point north of Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a bug where some crows in Lower DeSalle would not be aligned with the railing they sit on.
Fixed a floating Extraction Vehicle Southwest of Fort Bolden.
Fixed a floating loot anchor on the Upper DeSalle Bank's Balcony.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck by getting pushed into a table from a door in Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a bug where some crows in Pearl Plantation would not be aligned with the railing they sit on.
Fixed a bug where the Spider could get out of bounds of the boss lair in Heritage Pork.
Fixed a floating lamp post in Stanley Coal Company.
Fixed a few loot anchors in Seven Sisters Estate that were clipping into the ground.
Fixed a rock that could be seen through from one side between Darin Shipyard and Pelican Island Prison under a bridge.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck behind 2 barrels in Heritage Pork.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck underneath the stairs of the Watchtower near Pelican Island Prison.
Fixed an invisible collision on the roof in Heritage Pork north.
Fixed the edge of the water North of Heritage Pork being visible.
Fixed a one-way visibility gap under the stairs in Lower DeSalle Saloon.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck at the windmill in Seven Sisters Estate.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck on a small box west of Heritage Pork.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck in Heritage Pork main building attic.
Fixed an AI spawn being too close to a starting Hunter spawn West of Seven Sisters Estate.
Fixed a floating poster northwest of Heritage Pork.
Fixed some broken collision on two of the small roofs in Stanley Coal Company that could cause desync.
Fixed a bug where some wooden planks in Fort Bolden did not have proper collision.
Fixed a bug where a floating poster could spawn near Pelican Island Prison.
Fixed a bug where a floating lantern could spawn in Fort Bolden.
Fixed a bug where players could get stuck on a few corners in Kingsnake Mine.
Fixed several minor floating and clipping issues in in Kingsnake Mine.
Fixed a bug that caused some difficulties with vaulting over horse carts in Kingsnake Mine.
Fixed some areas where players could encounter issues while crouching or vaulting in Kingsnake Mine.
Fixed a bug where players were able to reach a blocked area in the boss lair of Kingsnake Mine.
Fixed a spot in Kingsnake Mine where players were able to hide inside the Assassin boss lair dressing.
Fixed some jittering issues that occured with water wheels.
Fixed a bug that resulted in some wind chimes being invisible throughout the map.
Fixed a bug where certain fire volumes that spawned from shooting chicken cage lanterns would spawn the fire too far from the chicken cage itself.
Fixed a bug where bullets got stopped by invisible asset in Weeping Stone Mill
Fixed a bug where a barrel or event times might spawn under terrain in Darin Shipyard

Global

Spectator mode

Fixed an issue where player could not spectate other players even if some players were still in the match.
Fixed an issue where in Quickplay, spectator mode would not default to the player that killed them.
Fixed an issue where the spectator mode would not stop spectating even if the player spectated was killed.

Fixed an issue whereby health-bar would not update correctly after taking very minor burn damage.

Fixed an issue where the hunter’s pose for quickplay were not updated correctly when changing between the loadout selection choices.

Please note – this list is not all encompassing. We are aware that some current known issues might now be listed, however we will continue to update it as these are reported to us.

In some cases, weapons will come out of ADS randomly.
Spectator mode: Aiming state of the player does not always line up with what is visible in spectator mode.
In some cases, while in the “waiting for players” screen, it is possible for AI to attack.
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: Picking up a small weapon while performing a switch to a larger weapon results in swapping the wrong item.
In some cases, cancelling a reload will cause you to melee instead of shoot in cases where the right mouse button is held down.
Concertina wire can damage players through walls.
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.
Arrows and throwing knives may not be retrievable after an AI disappears.
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.
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 broken windows may appear to be intact.
In some instance, after reconnecting, you may not be able to swap between your main weapons. Switching to a tool/consumable slot and back will resolve the problem.
In some rare cases, the spider may become stuck beneath the floor after jumping on a player.
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 rare cases, a health pack can spawn on a clue which will prevent you from correctly investigating it.
Tutorial: Consumable replenishment may be incorrect after respawning.
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.
Quickplay: Looting a new tool can replace and already existing empty tool, rather than taking up the next available slot.
Lootable weapons sometimes drop to close to each other making it difficult to loot the correct one.
Dying to a poison cloud or poison trip mine will result in seeing an empty death screen.
In some cases, you may encounter desyncs between the client and server when walking on edges/slopes.
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.
Challenges: Kill 50 bosses is incorrectly tracked by the killing blow rather than participation.
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.
In some cases, the crosshair for the throwing knives and axes can disappear during gameplay.
In some cases, the crosshair may not change dynamically when switching between aiming modes and can become stuck at the smaller size.
Shooting a hive bomb that is floating on the water (with a shotgun) can result in multiple instances of the swarm.
Death from bleeding damage caused by AI can show as killing yourself in the damage history on the death screen.
Bleeding damage ticks are not properly represented in the damage history.
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.
In some cases, the banish timer might desync and show that the boss banishes earlier or later than intended.
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.
The ammo counter for the Scottfield might not update correctly in some instances.
Vaulting while swapping custom ammo in a single shot rifle can in some cases cause the weapon to be unusable.
In some cases, when sprint and ADS are bound to separate buttons – certain actions can result in the sprint command being ignored.
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.
In some cases, the clones of the Assassin may become stuck and will not attack players.
Disconnects that happen when standing at the bottom of a ladder can cause the hunter to enter a climbing state (but not actually climb the ladder)
In some cases, while in gunslinger mode, performing multiple actions in very quick succession can cause players to melee instead of shooting as intended.
Gunslinger: In some cases, players can shoot by pressing melee button after spamming a combination of different actions.
In some cases, it is not possible to charge a melee attack instantly after swapping between weapons/tools.
Trials: In some cases, when replaying an earlier trial mission, you might spawn in with less health chunks than intended.
Transitioning between poison states can sometimes result in a slight camera shake.

Nov 17, 2021

Map Changes Blog - Update 1.7

Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Cry_Ari

Stillwater and Lawson - Details of the compound changes coming with Update 1.7

Hunters, Update 1.7 is incoming and with it are some changes to Stillwater Bayou and Lawson Delta. After the work that went into the DeSalle map, we wanted to look back at what we had learned from developing that map and analyze what had worked well as you guys have hunted bounties in it. These learnings were the spark for us to bring new life and options to the older maps. And you'll see these changes in the latest game update. For example, one of the largest learnings from DeSalle was our determination that the water in Hunt is not really a gameplay space but rather an obstacle and should be treated as such from a design perspective.

There are also adjustments, additions, and changes across the maps, such as new routes towards compounds where specific areas have become bottlenecks, reducing gameplay stalemate zones, and rebalancing sites that give too much advantage to a defensive or attacking team.

The complete list of changes can be found in the Patch Notes. There are many additions, and we hope that together they make each map an even more rewarding, engaging, and exciting gameplay experience. To give you a flavor of what's in store, we'll take a tour of just some of the compound changes with some before and after snaps.

Stillwater Bayou

Lockbay Docks

You'll find more windows, an elevator platform connecting the main building, and an extended roof providing access to new entry points here. The aim is to make this building less locked down, add more purpose to the upper floor and basement, and create more places to peek out, provoking combat.

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Pitching Crematorium

Underground areas, in general, have brought a lot of challenges, so we wanted to provide players on the attack in these areas with more options to choose from and reduce stalemate situations.

On the outside, we found players were hesitant to push into the compound perimeter. To address this, we're giving you more options. We are extending the waterside entrance, providing more cover when approaching from the west, replacing the one-person-elevator with a multi-person platform elevator, and extending the jetty. There are also a few more additions for you to discover.

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We wanted to make the compound interior more rewarding by adding more viable options for you to access the underground areas. Long sightlines have been broken up, we've added more cover for attackers to use, and more entrances to the boss room make it easier to flank and infiltrate.

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Scupper Lake

As we mentioned, it's emerged over time that water is not really a gameplay space but rather an obstacle. We followed this as a guideline for DeSalle, but we've adjusted this across many areas on the older maps, especially in Stillwater Bayou. Scupper Lake is a good demonstration of the design approach.

You'll find more land around the compound to aid your movement, new wooden walkways, clearer perimeters, and reduced and grouped vegetation. Overall, going through the water to your target may still be a quicker or better option, but you'll have plenty of other viable routes to choose from.

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Lawson Delta

Bradley & Craven Brickworks

The roof of the east brickworks building has proven to be an excellent spot for attackers to pick up a decisive and satisfying kill on defenders inside the building. However, accessing this roof has always been awkward as you had to enter the compound. The solution? More ladders. Enjoy.

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Nicholls Prison

We saw with DeSalle that the more 'organic' forest areas, like those seen in Stillwater Bayou, have more appeal and fun than the simpler vegetation blockers that were mainly used in Lawson Delta. As a first step, we've edited the forest northwest of Nicholls Prison to be less "corridor-like."

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Maw Battery

Due to its elevated position, Maw Battery can be pretty intimidating to approach. We've added a watchtower to the mud bunker to the west so you can scope out the situation before committing to action.

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Wolfhead Arsenal

With this compound, we wanted to improve route and flanking options both inside and outside. We've reworked the side buildings and added more shutters and windows, added another balcony to the northeast building facing Fort Carmick, extended the roof around the compound's northwest building, and more. We've also added some visual upgrades across this area.

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We hope this brief tour gives you an insight into the design decisions taken around the improvements that await. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of the many, many changes to the compounds listed above or the other compounds improved in the maps. However, you can check out the Patch Notes that come with Update 1.7 for a definitive list of additions and upgrades. We are confident that the update provides a better experience, and we'll continue to analyze the way you play through these areas to work out what is working well, what might need further improvement, and so on. And of course, your feedback is always really useful, so as you get used to the compound changes, let us know what you think on the usual channels.

See you in the (new and improved) bayou,

- Your Hunt: Showdown Community Team

Nov 16, 2021

'Reconnect Support' Feature Blog - Update 1.7

Hunt: Showdown 1896 - Cry_Ari

Introducing the long-awaited 'Reconnect Support' feature

Hunters, as you know, we're always looking to push your Hunt: Showdown experience forwards, and today we're pleased to announce that we are rolling out the much anticipated Reconnect Support feature in Update 1.7. This has been one of the most requested features from the community for a long time. In fact, it's something that we have tracked since our Early Access days. While it might seem like a relatively simple feature, we've had to work hard to limit the chance of a reconnect feature being exploited by bad actors. However, after much toil, we are pleased to introduce our solution.

The Reconnect Support feature allows you to reconnect to a Bounty Hunt mission if you have lost your connection to the game or the game has crashed. Previously, losing your connection meant it was all over for you in the bayou. So, we wanted to make sure a feature like this would give you the ability to complete the mission as if you had never left and prevent losing Hunters when you lose your connection to the game.

The feature has also been in the works for a long time because we wanted to make it as solid as possible before introducing it to the game. Since this is a substantial addition to Hunt, we understand there may be edge cases that we were unable to encounter during our internal playtests. If you experience any unusual behavior with this feature, please be sure to reach out to the team and provide a detailed description of what happened so we can reproduce and fix any issues that you do encounter. Remember, details are key to helping us ensure we can find and solve problems quickly, so we appreciate as much detail as possible. Your help is how we get problems solved.

Here are some of the finer details about the feature and how it works:

There are two ways in which the Reconnection Support feature will attempt to restore the connection:

· "On the Fly" 60 seconds reconnect:

In instances where you lose connection to the server but the game client is still running, we will attempt to restore the connection and get you back into the mission.

· Game client crash/client restart/kick to main menu reconnect:

In instances where the game client crashes, or if you restart the game while in a mission, a prompt will appear, giving you the option to reconnect to the mission or abandon your Hunter.

A prompt will show the remaining mission time, the current state of you and your teammates as:

Alive.
Downed – can be revived.
Dead – Redskulled/cannot be revived.
Burning while downed - better hurry, you might be able to get back and put the fire out!

· When disconnected, your Hunter will stay where they are and crouch in place to ensure they are as small a target as possible. This does not apply when already down or dead.

· Teammates will receive a notification to show that you have lost connection. This will allow them to attempt to protect you while you reconnect.

· If you leave the mission (using the Leave mission button in the pause menu) or if you decline the reconnect prompt in the main menu, your Hunter will be lost, and your teammates will be informed of your decision.

· You will be able to reconnect to the current mission for up to 10 minutes after the initial disconnect. If you fail to reconnect after this time, we will consider that you are gone/won't be returning to this mission, and the Hunter will die.

· This 10-minute timer will refresh for each disconnect. So, if you have multiple disconnects in a game for any reason, you will have 10 minutes to return after each one.

· These disconnects will not modify the mission time. If you lose your connection, the mission will continue as usual, meaning the timer will also continue to count down. For example, if you disconnect and only have 3 minutes left on the timer to extract, we will not extend the timer to allow extra time to get to the extraction. We have done this in the interest of fairness and to avoid players trying to intentionally cut their connection to gain any kind of an advantage.

· If your connection drops but the game does not crash or kick you back to the main menu, we will attempt to auto-reconnect you for the next 60 seconds. If the connection has not been restored after this time, you will be sent to the main menu, where you can try again through the reconnect prompt.

· For now, the reconnect feature is only available for Bounty Hunt. Quickplay matches are much faster and don't carry the same stakes as the Bounty Hunt missions, so the chances of reconnecting to a Hunter that is still alive (and has an opportunity to get the wellspring) are a lot slimmer.

We hope this feature makes a difference for you, and once again, do let us know if you come across issues and problem cases with as much detail as possible so we can monitor and fix them.

See you in the bayou,

- Your Hunt: Showdown Community Team