Thursday, 30th June 2011
Status Updates are weekly posts made in the community forum where the team share insights into the development of theHunter.
Many thanks to everyone joining in on the live chat during yesterdays release!
Instead of posting a status update yesterday in the middle of all release activity we thought it was a better idea to get it out today with a wrap-up about the release. Since everything thankfully went pretty smooth with the release we'll also have a look about what's coming next. Some things big, some things small, and a little inbetween.
Yesterday we released the big update adding the moose to Redfeather Falls! Being such a big, majestic animal it's great to finally be able to add it to the world of theHunter.
The moose is also a significant because it uses TruRACS (True Random Antler Configuration System), providing a virtually unlimited amount of unique antlers which are scored exactly by how they look like.
As many of you also have noticed the moose can be pretty aggressive and come running towards you. Putting down a big moose running against you is not the easiest thing, make sure you hit the heart to have it drop quickly. With one or several non vital hits, a moose can run pretty far.
The Moose Caller we added is also interesting, because it works in a quite different way compared to the existing lures. When using the caller there is a chance that any nearby moose will actually answer and call back. Note that the bigger the moose is, the less chance it will actually answer.
Also included in this update is a completely new set of missions for the bear. Make sure to visit the mission page to accept the starting mission and try to progress all the way!
The new competitions for the moose will start Saturday.
There are several things we're working on (a lot is also behind the scenes). Here is what's in store the nearest couple of months.
Localization - support for having multiple languages is almost complete, and besides German that was announced earlier we do have a dedicated team also working on a Polish translation.
TruRACS - with TruRACS implemented for the moose the next step is to apply to the other animals. Overall we are looking at all the species to see what a "2.0 version" of that animal would be. It's about increasing the value of the content we already have, to make them more interesting and more unique to hunt.
Tent - Finally it is time for the tent and all technical dependencies are in place. Basically the design for the tent is to have it work in the same way as you use a ground blind, except that you will put it at a location and after that it will work as a starting point (like a lodge).
Crossbow - Delayed due to both technical and legal reasons the crossbow will finally make an apperance. We are also very happy to announce that the crossbow will in fact be the Tenpoint Carbon Fusion!
Achievements - We'll also be adding an elaborate achievement system where you will be able to get achivements in several different categores as well as compare an overall achievement score with your friends.
We are also eager to have everything as solid as possible in time for our retail box release, so we'll be watching everything closely to try to get rid of any annoyances (including the famous flying moose bug ;)). If you have any pet annoyances, feel free to point them out. :)
PS. The full stand-alone installer is available at this URL while we're waiting on our download partners to update their mirrors (the game is automatically patched otherwise, so the old one still works): theHunterSetup.exe
