Patch Notes 2.50

To Our Predator: Hunting Grounds Community:

Thank you. Thank you for loving this game as much as we do. This community is enthusiastic, vocal, and full of passion. You’ve mastered this game so much that even some of the Devs are wary of matchmaking against you all. This is what every dev team hopes for. We love seeing your tournaments, fashion shows, cosplay, and gameplay! Because of this, IllFonic knew we needed to get our Predator community more. When we make a game, we want it to live and evolve. We want to continue to challenge players.

Now that IllFonic is publishing games, we had to get Predator: Hunting Grounds back. We knew we had more game left to make. We needed to get back to the Chopper! With advancing tech and what we have learned in recent years, there was so much more to be done for Predator: Hunting Grounds. So, I’m thrilled to announce the team has been working hard to bring you new content this year. Here is just a quick preview of what you will start to see from the team:

• We are releasing a considerably sized patch this April. The focus is on player movement, Fireteam weapon rework and balance, Predator weapon balance, and UX/playability improvements.
• In the fall of 2024, not only are we coming to Nextgen - PS5, but we plan to release Predator to Xbox! This release is focused on all things next-gen running on Unreal 4.27, Vivox, and Wwise, with a Standard Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition offered.
• In the Winter of 2024, Fans will get not one but two new Predators.
• In the Spring of 2025, we are rolling out more Predators.

We really are excited to rejoin our community in the jungle. Get ready… we can already hear the bongos.

Cheers, and happy Gaming.

Charles Brungardt, CEO, IllFonic Inc.

Patch Notes 2.50

General

• Fixed an issue where PS4 users were crashing if their console’s memory storage was near full
• Fixed an issue where Dutch’s Tapes would appear out of order when viewed in the Collectibles Menu
• Fixed an issue where in Spectator mode, moving the camera could cause the camera to get stuck
• Fixed an issue where the Smart Disc flight path could sometimes appear erratic to Fireteam members
• Fixed an issue where NPC soldiers idle animations could appear jittery
• Fixed an issue where NPC soldiers could appear on the ground in the standing pose after being killed
• Fixed an issue where the ‘CAMP ALARM TRIGGERED’ and ‘INSIDE SEARCH AREA’ text would overlap on the HUD
• Fixed an issue where the Field Locker would be misaligned on the table
• Fixed an issue where in Field Lockers, the ‘Sunburst’ skins on the Combat, Tactical, and Scimitar knives would appear misaligned and smaller than intended
• Fixed an issue where re-assigning the “Toggle Night Vision Goggles” keybinding would not work on controllers
• Fixed an issue where the Team Preference logo would sometimes disappear when navigating through menus

Predator

• Fixed an issue where kills done with the Smart Disc would not count on the AAR
• Fixed an issue where parrying with the Brute Specialization equipped would not apply the bonus damage buff
• Fixed an issue where the Battle Axe would sometimes deal additional damage when using the heavy attack
• Fixed an issue where the ‘Savage Specialization’ was not restoring health when claiming dead Fireteam members or certain NPCs
• Fixed an issue in Private Matches where the Predator Gear Amount modifier was not working properly
• Fixed an issue in Private Matches where the Predator Starting Ammo modifier was not working properly
• Fixed an issue where equipping the Pirate mask would continue to allow players to access the Warpaint and Scar menus
• Fixed an issue where having certain masks equipped could cause the Predator’s mask to respawn even after being destroyed
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the Predator’s aiming reticle would disappear after throwing and catching the Smart Disc
• Fixed an issue where the Predator’s Smart Disc camera mode would be canceled if an existing smart disc is destroyed at the same time
• Fixed an issue where Predators could get stuck in ADS mode if the player is holding down the ADS button right before climbing a tree
• Fixed an issue where a Predator’s Vision Mode would stay active while piloting a Smart Disc
• Fixed an issue where if a Cloaked Predator used a Smart Disc, the Predator’s Cloaking VFX would not display properly
• Fixed an issue where opening the chat while the weapon wheel is open could cause the weapon wheel to become stuck on the screen

Fireteam

• Fixed an issue where the Fanatic specialization was incorrectly causing Fireteam members to deal additional damage on top of the base damage increase
• Fixed an issue where med-kits would appear as invisible or unusable in certain locations
• Fixed an issue where Fireteam members could pick up ammo even when maxed out on ammo and gear
• Fixed an issue where the gear count would not appear correctly in the Customization menu when either the ‘Large Pouch’ or ‘Gear Head’ perk are equipped
• Fixed an issue where Reinforcements would not work properly on any Fireteam member that was in the process of being Long Claimed when reinforced
• Fixed an issue where users were able to equip gear in the Secondary Weapon slot
• Added a cooldown to “Alert Team” ping for when reinforcement missions are available
• Fixed an issue where after parrying an attack, the followup melee attacks would apply damage twice
• Fixed an issue where Fireteam camera would not shake after healing
• Fixed an issue where semi-automatic weapons/fire mode could cause the weapons to misfire when performing certain actions
• Fixed an issue where spinning up the S-R3D would not activate the PS4 controller rumble

Adjustments and Balance Changes
For a more comprehensive and detailed list of adjustments and balance changes, please refer to the section below

General

• Increased interaction time and health on Camp Alarms
• Player profiles may now be viewed on Steam
• Users may now use Right Mouse Button to back out of menus
• Made adjustments to the damage and blast radius of explosives barrels depending on source
• Added access to the Options Menu to pre-game lobbies and private match lobbies
• Added a confirmation check before entering the tutorial
• HUD Modifiers and removing Bots from matches no longer reduce XP in custom matches
• Increased camp alarm health
• Increased time to disarm camp alarm
• NPC soldiers will now activate camp alarms more consistently
• Fireteam’s Infiltration location now stays on screen after the voting ends
• Added background blur to the control rebinding menu
• ‘Disabled alarm’ XP is now also awarded when destroying an alarm
• Made improvements and adjustments to the Fireteam and Predator camera systems

Player Movement

• Various movement adjustments
• Predator Movement tuning and polish pass
• Adjusted weight, acceleration, and jump velocity to give the Predator more weight
• Fireteam Movement tuning and polish pass
• Increased Fireteam camera shake when landing from a jump, and for nearby Predator footsteps
• Slightly decreased Fireteam movement speed when wounded
• Slightly decreased Fireteam movement speed while using Syrette
• Reduced Fireteam jump stamina usage
• Reduced Fireteam exhaustion duration
• Adjusted Fireteam sliding to allow for longer and cooler slides

Predator

• Sped up Second Wind healing process for Predator
• Added a low health alert to Predator’s HUD
• Increased direct hit damage for Plasma Caster projectile
• Slightly increased minimum amount of damage dealt by a charged Plasma Caster projectile
• Decreased direct and AOE damage of Handheld Plasma Caster projectiles
• Decreased Predator interaction delay on trophy claim and boar kills
• Added highlights and decreased interaction time for Predkour entries
• Increased intensity of flashing on health bar when at low health
• Decreased AOE on Plasma Caster to better match VFX
• Gear is now throwable without aiming
• Adjusted the combo timings on several Predator Melee weapons to tighten feel and pacing
• Made improvements to Predkour tree UI feedback
• Made adjustments to increase visibility of the low health indicators and damage taken indicators for Predator players
• Made adjustments to the attack timings for all Predator Melee Weapons

Fireteam

• Added distance highlights for ammo, health, and weapon lockers
• Several improvements and fixes made to the Fireteam mission objective window
• Several changes made to individual Fireteam weapons listed further below
• Added camera shake and vignetting after healing as Fireteam
• Lowered ammo reserves and ammo pickups for several Fireteam weapons
• Various adjustments made to recoil on all Fireteam weapons
• Adjusted the Fireteam interact widget to better highlight inputs
• UAV Scanner no longer shows Veritanium or items you’ve already picked up
• Updated and clarified UI for when Reinforcement Missions are available
• Can now cancel the weapon equip/unequip animation for a quicker weapon swap
• Collectibles will now be instant pickups, except for the large stores of Veritanium
• Dante's Field Medic Specialization has been replaced with the Comms Specialization

Adjustments and Balance Changes Notes
Welcome back to the Hunting Grounds! My name is Jordan Mathewson, I'm the Design Director here at IllFonic. Today, I’m extremely excited to be writing these patch notes, as it’s one of my favorite projects and the first game I was a part of from the very beginning. Recently, part of our community and development teams here at IllFonic have been out gathering issues and tackling them in preparation for this return. When I got wind we were able to finally work on a patch for Predator: Hunting Grounds, I spent some time evaluating things we could additionally improve on to make this a really substantial update.

Returning to previous work is always interesting, especially when it's a project earlier in your career. Now that I've worked on several other titles here at IllFonic, I've gained more perspective from more years of development experience. As I dove back in and reviewed the mechanics, features, and balance of Predator: Hunting Grounds, I found areas where we could improve gameplay in ways we didn’t expect.

Growing up as a gamer, I was always interested in becoming a developer, though I really wished I was exposed to someone explaining the game development process more, so I want to take this time to walk through our approach to this patch. There are always so many decisions to be made when approaching situations like this, so we want to give you a glimpse into what we're thinking when it comes to the development process.

Player Movement
Player movement is something that stood out to me instantly as needing some attention. For these changes, we wanted there to be more finesse in the player movement on both sides of the playing field. There are so many things that contribute to this feature, including the fact that we have two completely different movement styles between Fireteam and Predator.

• Predator Movement - I noticed right away that something the Predator movement needed was more “weight”. These creatures are supposed to be massive and powerful, yet they felt floaty when leaping through the air. That floatiness led to the Predator being much more vulnerable while in the air than they should be. We tuned the Predator’s gravity, movement acceleration, and jump velocity to achieve the Predator’s updated movement feel. There were no direct changes made to the Leap, however all the changes mentioned above have both directly and indirectly affected the Leap. Predator players should now feel they can reliably get where they want to go faster and more consistently, which should also give them a more viable escape tool during heavy combat and Second Wind.
• Fireteam Movement Updates - While Fireteam control and style of movement differs from Predators, they still lacked weight to fully ground them throughout gameplay. There was also a plethora of other things I felt would benefit from a stamina rebalance pass.
  • Fireteam stamina rebalance pass - To help push Fireteam members to be more careful of their stamina usage, I evaluated and re-tuned several stamina variables. Keep in mind, the “stamina” stat will not look different in the customization menu. All values were kept within the range of the existing class structure.
    • Reduced Stamina regeneration speed
    • Increased stamina totals, focused benefit to scout and recon classes
    • Reduced Fireteam jump stamina cost
    • Reduced Fireteam exhaustion duration

  • Added very slight movement debuff to Fireteam when wounded - There was originally a slight movement speed reduction below a certain health threshold, but I felt it was barely noticeable for being “wounded”. This value has been tuned, so Fireteam members will be a bit slower when wounded.
  • Adjustments and tweaks to Fireteam sliding - We wanted to make slides feel better, so we increased the amount of distance and time Fireteam members can slide for.
  • Updated intensity of Fireteam landing and Predator footstep camera shakes for Fireteam - We wanted you, the player, to feel the weight of a fully geared up soldier. To that point, we also wanted you to feel the weight of nearby Predators stomping around. To give you that feel, we increased the intensity of these camera shakes to help better immerse the player.
  • Updating fall time to on First Person arms animation logic to tighten falling feel for Fireteam - We think visual feedback is really important to connecting you, the player, to your character. In my movement investigations, I noticed a sluggish feeling in first-person when Fireteam members walked off of ledges. The game will now react faster to the feedback of jumping, falling, and landing across different heights.
  • Slowed Fireteam member a smidge when using heal syrette - We slightly increased the movement penalty while injecting yourself with a health syringe. The syringe gives a massive health increase in such a short amount of time. Such a benefit should have more of a cost. Fireteam players should have to take the movement penalty into consideration while being chased.

Fireteam Weapon Rework and Balance
This is something I've been eyeing for a while! The engineering team and I teamed up to revisit some of the FPS features that felt like they needed the most attention. Then, based on playtesting, community feedback, and personal observations, I updated some balance to some of these Fireteam weapons.

• Fireteam Weapon Recoil Rework - Recoil should now feel like it more realistically matches a weapon's power. The way recoil was being calculated between shots caused recoil to look more jarring on heavy weapons. We reworked this calculation to help create a much more realistic feeling kick to all guns.
• Full Weapon recoil pass - With the recoil system rework in place, this allowed me to do a full rebalance of recoil across all the standard fireteam weapons. We mostly increased recoil on powerful weapons and made some more unique recoil patterns to better portray the “kick” differences between weapons you are wielding. I am loving the way these weapons are feeling now and hope you all agree!
• Minigun Buff - The minigun seemed like it didn't quite have the oomph it needed. I made some adjustments to make this a much more viable option for Fireteam members that want to whip out Ole Painless and dish out the hurt. Tightened the Minigun’s accuracy, but also increased recoil. I also increased the magazine and ammo counts so Fireteam members can fire the minigun for a sustained period of time to provide threatening suppressing fire.
  • Added more ammo to minigun mag, increased starting ammo reserve
  • Increased speed of walking with minigun

• Lowered close range damage on ARs and LMGs - ARs and LMGs were doing a bit too much damage at close range. This was taking away from where SMGs and Shotguns were supposed to shine.
• Increased close range damage on SMGs - To go in tandem with the AR/LMG change, we are buffing the close range damage of SMGs to give them more power and viability in specifically close quarters combat. We felt shotguns were fine in the state they were in.
• Ammo reserve and ammo pickup amount pass across all guns - I want the Fireteam to be more conscious of how they manage their resources, and encourage teamwork between Fireteam members. I felt there was a bit too much firepower on the field with how many resupply opportunities there are between ammo crates, Fireteam ammo bags, enemy ammo drops. To tone down this firepower, we reduced the starting ammo for the standard Fireteam weapons. Also, some weapons were receiving more ammo from pickups than others. We adjusted those ammo pickup numbers to balance overall firepower and resource management.
• Other Updates
  • Toned down muzzle flash for Hammerhead - There was an intense light blowing out the iron sight of the Hammerhead. I reduced the light intensity which helps improve this visual.
  • Slowed use of RP103, 7EN, and SAWZ - Heavy weapons are powerful and should feel powerful, but they should also feel like they have weight as a trade-off for that power. To help balance and reinforce the feel of these heavy weapons, I slowed down several stats and animation speeds to offset their powerful nature.
    • Lowered movement speed on all scoped weapons
    • slowed scoping in and out speed of the 10x scope
    • slowed reload on 7en and RP103

  • Reduced overall damage of ZR55 slightly - While the ZR55 still received a close range damage buff, I did slightly decrease the ZR55’s overall Damage, as this SMG was outperforming most other weapons with its combination of high damage and high rate of fire.

Predator Weapon Balance
Based on personal observations, as well as feedback from the community and the IllFonic team, I made some updates to some Predator Weaponry balance. The Predator remains powerful, but there were some features that needed some specific adjustments to improve the experience.

• Plasma Caster Radius Nerf - The radius on the plasma caster was much too wide, so the radius has been reduced. This will make it much more difficult to spam around corners and will require Predator players to be more precise with their aim.
  • Tuned plasma caster AOE to better fit the represented VFX (tightened)
  • Slightly increased lower end damage of a charged plasma caster projectile
  • Slightly increased direct hit damage for plasma caster projectile

• Handheld Plasma Caster Nerf - After looking at feedback and stats, we saw that the HHPC was a bit too powerful. We’re lowering the damage and reducing the magazine size of the HHPC, but to keep it feeling viable, we’re increasing the rate of fire.
  • Lowered direct and AOE damage of handheld plasma caster projectiles
  • Reduced mag of HHPC to 6, slightly increased rate of fire

• Cleaned up and adjusted Predator melee weapon attack timings - After auditing through many melee attack animations, I noticed a few spots where there were some incorrect "combo threshold timings". This is a variable that tells the game when it can allow you to perform the next attack in the melee combo. These are small tweaks, but will improve the timing and feeling of melee attacks and combos across the board.
• Fine tuning and re-adjusting placement of parry end notification to make more sense across all pred melee attacks - I found there were some misplacements in parry timing that were making parries far easier than they should be. I adjusted the timings to make sure parries are only possible right before the Predator’s melee weapon is about to strike a Fireteam member. Fireteam will have to better anticipate attacks instead of mashing to get a successful parry. I also found a spot where some parry notifiers were happening incorrectly on multistrike melee animations. This is a delicate balance, so we are going to keep a close eye on parries overall!

UX/Playability Improvements
We always want to focus on the user experience and overall playability while we play our games. As I've been playing P:HG, certain small things started to jump out to me that needed some attention. While not all of these changes are huge, we understand these small things can add up to a frustrating game experience. The changes listed here should help make the overall gameplay experience clearer. Enjoy!

• Fireteam
  • Adjusted interact widget for Fireteam to better highlight input - UI widgets that players see on in-world interactions had a very small button image that was rather tough to see when on screen, especially in chaos. Increasing the size and visual of this button image has helped make it much more clear that a button needs to be held down for an interaction to occur.
  • Made non-selected gear items grayed out - In your in-match gear inventory, I felt it was very difficult to quickly see which gear item you currently have selected for use. To address this, we grayed out the gear that you do not have selected so that your selected item stands out more clearly.
  • Added distance highlights for ammo, health, and weapon lockers - I saw that players couldn't tell if something was interactable or not when it was far away. We've updated interactable objects so Fireteam members can clearly identify what is interactable from farther away.
  • Cleaned up and fixed some issues with the Fireteam mission widget - There were several issues with the Fireteam objective window in the top right of the screen. After digging into it, I fixed up some random bugs and increased the visibility of the current objectives icon. This should help inform what objective icon you are looking for while in a match.

• Predator
  • Added some urgency to the second wind widget - We felt beginner Predators had a hard time noticing when their health was dropping. We wanted this visual feedback to be more clear.
    • Increased visual flashing and intensity of visual flashing of iconography and text on the HUD to help players better understand they are in second wind.

  • Tightening delay on Predator Interactions to make holds like trophy claim and boars snappier. To improve on some sluggish interactions on pivotal gameplay, we decreased the amount of time Predator players have to hold the interaction key for long claiming and consuming boar interactions to begin progressing. Every second counts. These decisions and interactions can change the course of a hunt, and this tune should give a more responsive feel.
  • Improvements to Predkour entry - We've observed that entering into Predkour trees from the ground can sometimes happen in situations you are not trying to do so. To help alleviate this, I made some adjustments to improve the overall experience of Predkour by adding a highlight to the entry interaction, which allowed me to tighten the interaction distance itself. Players now need to be closer to enter, and will have better UI feedback to explain this.
  • Increased size of visual flare for health on Predator - To better help Predator players keep track of their health with peripheral vision rather than needing to take your eyes off the action in a firefight, I increased the size of the visual flare element that extends vertically when taking damage. This is a vertical UI image that aligns with the current health amount, and will now extend high enough to catch players attention when damage is being taken, especially in quick succession.
  • Increased intensity of health bar flashing on low health for Predator - To help players better understand they are at a low health, we added a more noticeable flashing animation to the Predator’s health bar. This increased flashing intensity combined with the other low health visual indicators should clearly communicate to the Predator player the danger that they're in.
  • Sped up the Second Wind healing process for Predator - This is a buff to the second wind heal, making it happen faster so the Predator can get back into the hunt.
• General
  • Full Fireteam and Predator Camera update and polish pass - I caught and managed to track down several dynamic FOV adjustments that were happening with movement states which weren't feeling quite right. I found where these were triggered and removed them, which got the cameras feeling much more responsive to input. As you play with either side, the camera experience should feel much more connected to your controls and movement of your player.
  • Updated damage and radius of explosive barrels to be less/varied depending on source - I noticed that explosive barrels were a rather punishing aspect of the game that should be toned back. In order to get this in a good spot, I lowered the overall damage and radius, and then tuned some lower numbers for the gas can, since that explosion should be much less impactful than a propane tank.
  • Tweaked explosive damage type to add a bit more impulse at high damage - I observed that some explosions weren't quite giving that full 80’s movie oomph when killing bad guys. So, I increased the impulse velocity done to NPCs killed by explosive damage sources. This should work with any explosion in the game, which gets more intense the closer to the epicenter

We are beyond excited to be back in the Hunting Grounds! I hope that everyone is excited as us that this is happening, and we here at IllFonic appreciate the passion and dedication this community has shown throughout the life of this game. We understand that this patch will have a large, refreshing impact on gameplay and balance, so we'll be closely observing. As we gather more feedback and witness the results of the update, we will continue making the changes necessary to make everything really sing. Good luck out there Fireteam :)