Hunters,
1.8 will primarily be a service focused update. With this, we are introducing some tentative client and server performance fixes in the hope of alleviating some of the performance issues that have been encountered since Update 1.7.
We know there is a chance these will not be the magic bullet to resolve all performance related problems but we are hoping it is a step in the right direction.
This test phase is very important for us as we need to ensure these improvements do help, and not cause further problems before we bring this update to the live servers.
This update will also include a number of changes and improvements across all maps, new tier 2 weapon lobby animations, changes to Cain and how he blends with the environment as well as some fixes to the first person view of certain hunters.
Final note - We have two new weapons and two new weapon variants that also require extra testing. These weapons will not be introduced with Update 1.8 but will come at a later date. These are being added now so that we can ensure that we have the required data to be certain these weapons are balanced when they are introduced to the live servers.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to try out this update on test. Your feedback is very important to us, so make sure you let us know how it goes.
With all that in mind, here are the detailed notes below:
Weapons
New weapon: Winfield 1893 Slate
Introducing the new, large slot, 6-round capacity, pump action shotgun – The Winfield 1893 Slate.
The Slate is an improvement on the earlier pump action Spectre 1882 in many ways: the mechanism is simpler meaning it is much smoother in terms of handling. It has an increased rate of fire and a faster reload when compared to the Spectre. The improved mechanism means there is no need for Bulletgruber with this shotgun as it can be topped up without needing to open the slide.
The barrel is shorter than the spectre which means it has an increased spread and recoil, like other shotguns in the arsenal. This increase in spread means it will have lower average damage and a shorter One Hit kill range. Like the Spectre, the Slate can benefit from the Iron Devastator trait allowing you to stay in iron sights during the weapon charge.
Developer note:
The addition of the second pump-action shotgun to the arsenal means that we now have an alternative to the Spectre. The main drawback we want to highlight with the Spectre is the “clunkiness” that comes with the early implementation of the pump-action mechanism during this time period. The Slate uses a much more modern mechanism which was something we wanted to showcase in the game and use this to determine exactly how the weapon should feel when being used. A good example is the ability to top load the first round directly into the chamber when empty, which allows for quick tactical reloads when in a tight spot.
New weapon Caldwell 92 New Army
The Caldwell New Army is a new, small slot, compact ammo double action revolver that comes with a 6-round capacity. Overall, this weapon is best compared with the Nagant M1895 Officer, but it also shares some similarities with the Scottfield Model 3.
Like the Scottfield, it features a cylinder where all chambers can be accessed without the use of a loading gate, as well as an ejector to get used rounds out quicker. The main difference being that instead of breaking open from the top, the cylinder swings out to the left side of the weapon. This will allow for faster reload times in comparison to other compact revolvers in the arsenal.
In gunplay terms, the New Army is best compared with the Nagant officer as both are double action compact ammo pistols. The actual projectile is slightly larger which means its stopping power and range are increased.
However, the muzzle velocity of the Nagant office is slightly faster due to it having a tighter seal between the chamber and the barrel. They both have a similar rate of fire, with the New Army being a fraction slower, however in practice, this will be quite negligible, especially when reacquiring your target. This weapon can be dual wielded and benefits from the Ambidextrous trait.
Server and Client performance improvements
We know that many of you have been experiencing performance issues since Update 1.7 and we want you to know we are committed to getting to the bottom of these and improving performance across the board. With this update, we are bringing some tentative improvements from both a server and client perspective. These changes are as follows:
Server Side
- Improvements made on the server side to the physicalized entities in the world. This means we have reduced the processing costs attached to AI, Doors, chains and any other interactable object in the world.
- Removed an unused component that could impact server performance.
- Improvements made to spikes in performance that were caused by idle AI. These AI were using more recourses than needed so we have made some improvements to their cost on the server when idle. Please be aware, idle AI may have a slower reaction time than normal.
Client Side
We have made improvements to the way the game interacts with the Steam API. During a game session, we were calling some features of the Steam API every frame, this can be costly for some systems, so this resulted in a decrease in performance for some of you. We are hoping this change will help to alleviate some of the issues experienced.
Lightweight Profiler
We know that the above will not resolve the performance issues for everyone, so we are using this update as an opportunity to bring back the Lightweight profiler tool.
This tool will help us to further investigate the performance issues that some of you are having. We have added this as a user-friendly way to gather the data we need to further our investigations. Here is how it works:
- Go to Hunt in the game library, and click on the cogwheel
- Select properties from the dropdown menu
- Go to the “Beta” tab
- Enter the following code: cNfwbj56mwcqPZNA
- Make sure it shows as “Lightweight – Lightweight profiler” in the drop-down menu on the beta tab.
- Close this and launch the game. Select “Play Lightweight Profiler”
We recommend not using this feature for extended periods of time as it can have a minor impact on performance, depending on your setup.
Once you have completed a session you will need to send 2 files (game.log and profiling/pipeline_stats.csv) to either our Community Managers or to our Customer Support team. These files can be quite large in some cases, especially if you use the profiler for several games in a row. please keep this in mind when sending the files to our team.
World
- Doors can now open inward if you walk backwards while interacting with them.
- All ‘Barn’ type fences have been overhauled.
AI
- Grunts, Hives and Armoured will no longer react to stimulus in unison. This will give them a more natural feel.
- Improvements made to the leeches and their positioning in relation to Meatheads.
Audio
- Added the latest Port Sulphur Band album “The Sinners Songbook” to the song rotation in the main menu.
Hunter
- Adjustments were made to the textures of the Legendary Hunter “Cain” to improve his visibility within the surrounding environment.
Meta
Adjustments were made to the weapon meta stats to bring the details more in line with how the weapons perform in-game. (No actual changes have been made to any weapons with this update).
Menu
- Added the Tier 2 ‘weapon equip’ animations to the lobby and Roster menus.
World
Stillwater Bayou
- Re-added a vault point that was previously removed on the North side of the Boss lair in Davant Ranch.
- Reworked the underground section of The Chapel of Madonna Noir
- Added a new clue spawn position to the cabin between Chapel and Stillwater Bend.
- Reworked the layout of Cyprus Huts.
- Added some extra cover around the perimeter.
- Added some new windows and a new ladder to the boss building.
- Added some new clue positions.
- Reduced the amount of water present at this location.
- Updated the forest on the East side of the compound.
Lawson Delta
- Added some solid covers to the sandbags to the roof of Lawson Station.
- Changes made to the boss lair in Iron Works. Some of the overhead holes in the wall have been opened.
- Added a metal cover piece between the stairs of the water and workshop building in C&A Lumber.
- Added some obstacles (crate boxes) to the side of the building on the north side to provide extra cover from players peaking that location from inside Wolfshead Arsenal.
DeSalle
- Improvements made to the spawn point in the field at Moses Poultry. This spawn is now closer to the rocks providing cover when starting the match.
- Removed some of the sound traps in Pearl Plantation.
- Reworked the southside approach to Pearl Plantation.
- Reworked some of the environment around Lower DeSalle and Reeves Quarry.
- Cleaned up the environment along the west side of Upper DeSalle.
- Added some extra detail to improve the terrain at various locations around the map.
- Improved the roof access for the south side building at Reeves Quarry.
- Added a new passage and drop-in point to a shack at Kingsnake mine.
- Improved some areas in Kingsnake Mine to allow for smoother movement and better vaulting.
- Added some crates as a point of access on a very long cliff located on the north-west side of Kingsnake Mine.
- Improvements made to the rocky area near the northern gate of Kingsnake Mine. Added some extra metal sheets to this area to provide cover.
- Added some reeds to the river to the south of Kingsnake Mine.
- Improvements made to the environment between Kingsnake Mine and Weeping Stone Mill.
- Moved the Gramophone from the workshop to the construction site in Kingsnake Mine.
AI
- Fixed a bug that caused AI to sometimes become stuff on spawned items in the world.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Waterdevils from traversing through a choke bomb cloud.
- Fixed a bug that caused Hive swarms to not chase players the way it is intended.
- Fixed a bug that caused Armoured to continue to attack a door that has already been broken.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Meatheads to stand still in the world and not produce any leeches.
- Fixed a bug that caused the leech shedding animation from Meatheads to continue after their death.
Audio
- Fixed an issue that caused the audio from metal sliding doors to be distorted.
- Pressing start on the tutorial missions now produces the correct sound.
- Fixed an issue with the reverb and ambience around the cave entrance to Fort Bolden.
- Corrected the audio tied to snapping twigs.
- Fixed several reverb issues that were noticeable across all maps.
- Fixed a bug that caused the swarm of a Hive barrel to have no audio.
World
Stillwater Bayou
- Fixed a bug that caused the screen to turn black when entering the Crypt of Healing waters Church while using Dark Sight.
- Fixed a floating tree in Catfish Grove.
- Fixed a collision issue on the roof of the small shack, in the southwest section of Davant Ranch.
- Fixed several ‘one-way’ see through gaps in Chapel of Madonna Noir.
- Fixed a floating ammo crate anchor next to the generator in Catfish Grove.
- Fixed some vegetation clipping issues in Chapel of Madonna Noir.
- Fixed some clipping issues in the Hunting tower south of Catfish Grove.
- Fixed a vaulting point at Alain & Son’s Fish that was not working as intended.
- Fixed several unintended ways of entering the boss lair at Alice Farm.
- Added some new Barrel anchor points to Alice Farm.
- Fixed a floating loot anchor in Catfish grove.
Lawson Delta
- Fixed several floating barrels and loot items around Golden Acres & Salters Pork.
- Fixed several ‘one-way’ see through gaps in the roof at Maw Battery.
- Fixed some floating look items in Iron works.
- Fixed a misaligned window in Maw Battery.
- Fixed some floating skulls that appear in Maw Battery when the spider is present in that location.
- Fixed a floating loot anchor in the hunting tower south of Goddard Docks.
- Fixed an area south of Iron works that could not be traversed through.
- Reworked the collision for the Lawson Station Workshop roof.
- Reduced the spawn numbers of Hives at Arden Parish.
- Fixed an area in Salters pork that allowed players to hide behind the Assassin dressing.
- Fixed some floating objects in Nicholls Prison.
- Fixed a floating clue in Wolfshead Arsenal.
Desalle
- Fixed multiple windows, doors, ladders, and sound traps around the map that were incorrectly scaled.
- Fixed an area that could cause players to become stuck in the forest between Ash Creek Lumber and Upper Desalle.
- Fixed an issue that allowed players to walk on the outsides of the bridges around the map.
- Fixed several unintended gaps & cracks in Stanley Coal Company.
- Adjusted several windows in Stanley Coal Company.
- Fixed a non-interactable loot anchor in Darin Shipyard.
- Fixed a non-interactable loot anchor in Forked Fishery.
- Fixed an inaccessible cash register that can spawn in Reeves Quarry.
- Fixed some floating loot anchors in Fort Bolden.
- Adjusted the gap above the cranked gate in Darin Shipyard.
- Fixed some floating branches south of Pelican Island Prison.
- Fixed a spot in Kingsnake mine where players could get stuck.
- Corrected some aspects of the muddy forest areas around Stanley Coal Company and Heritage pork.
- Consistency pass performed on the Meathead Spawns across DeSalle.
- Fixed some vegetation that would disappear when going into Pelican Island Prison from the Testimonial Church.
- Fixed some issues with the Butcher decals in Upper DeSalle.
- Fixed some issues with the Assassin decals in Moses Poultry.
- Fixed some floating rocks in Reeves Quarry.
- Fixed some of the Assassin decals at Heritage Pork.
- Fixed some loot anchors that were clipping into the world geometry in Reeves Quarry and Darin Shipyard.
- Correct the visuals tied to the mud hills near Stanley Coal Company.
- Improvements made to the train wreck near Moses Poultry.
- Fixed a previously randomised window that is now permanently accessible in Fort Bolden.
- Fixed two windows in Fort Bolden that were not working as intended.
Gunplay
- Fixed some network synchronization issue that caused some hit reactions to glitch.
Weapon
- Fixed an issue that caused the FMJ ammo on the Winfield Silencer to have an increased trigger range as well as still having a muzzle flash.
- Fixed a bug that caused doors and windows to open when removing a knife/axe/bolt.
- Removing a throwing knife from a teammate will no longer cause further damage.
- The correct ping marker is now displayed when pinging the consumable ammo boxes.
- Fixed a rare issue that caused the speed loader bullets to get stuck inside the Scottfield Swift.
- Fixed a bug that caused the 3rd person animation of the Dual Scottfield Swifts to show the incorrect timings during reload.
- Fixed an issue that caused the LeMat Cylinder to spin after fanning.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Winfield Musket Bayonet to have the incorrect ammo count when using FMJ ammo.
- Fixed a minor visual issue with the 3P animation when charging choke and frag bombs
- Fixed an issue where the ammo switch animation on the Romero was not correctly synced.
- Fixed an issue that caused the Lebel and its variants to fall through the floor in some instances.