Test Server - Update 1.6

Hunters,

Below are the notes for Update 1.6.

Please be aware, Update 1.6 is going to require a full client download for both the test and live servers. While we understand that a full download can be frustrating ,it is necessary in this instance.

Over the last few months, we have been working on improving many different aspects of Hunt, one of those being a focus on improving our security and internal anti-cheat measures. We have made some changes to the encryption of the pak files in Hunt, and these important changes are the reason why a full client download is required for everyone. We feel 1.6 is the best time to do this as the new map (coming very soon) also requires a large download (around 12GB), so this will allow us to do perform our security updates with as little impact as possible, as well as ensuring multiple large downloads will not be required in a short period of time. The total download will be around ~30GB.

Thanks for your understanding.

Displaying MMR and post-match Team Details

Since our recent updates to the match making system (Update 1.5.2) we realized that there was a gap in how the game communicated player ratings.

To address this, we have added some new features to the lobby that will display the details of the MMR tied to you and your group (match MMR).

Important: Due to the configuration of the test server (there are no matchmaking brackets on test) please do not be surprised when you see very unbalanced matches. This feature will not display accurate information until it reaches the live server.

You can read more information in the full notes below in the UI section.

Audio

General Improvements

• Bullet’s Lullaby has been added to the main menu music rotation.
• Added boss audio effects to the accolades in the Summary screen when you have successfully extracted with the bounty. The audio effect will be determined by the boss that was available in the completed match.
• The menu ambience volume can now be controlled separately from the rest of the game sfx.
• Added sound effects when claiming entries in the Book of Weapons and Book of Monsters.
• Improvements made to the interior reverb and ambience through several building in Stillwater Bayou and Lawson Delta.
• Improvements made to the hunter footstep sound while in forests (improvements to the overall asset quality).

Audio Mixing Changes

• Slightly reduced the slapback echo generated by the Terminus Shotguns.
• Improvements made to the audio compression and sonic quality.

Gunplay

Medium and Long Ammo Maximum Ranges

• Long ammo max range has been increased to 500m
• Medium ammo max range has been increased to 350m
• These changes have also resulted in changes the Effective Range for some weapons which will be visible in-game in the usual places.

Examples:

• Effective range of the Sparks LRR has been increased to 347m (previously 250m).
• Effective range of the Vetterli 71 Karbiner increased to 184m (previously 167m).

Developer note:

We have decided to increase the max range for certain bullet types in preparation for the new map: DeSalle. As you may have noticed from our teasers, DeSalle comes with some areas that offer more verticality and longer sightlines. We have felt that there have been situations (even on the other maps) where the previous 250m headshot range and 300m projectile range felt a bit too low when attempting those rare long-range shots.

This increase in overall range comes with a systemic side effect of a longer Effective Range for some weapons. We feel this will give a solid boost in performance to long ammo sniper rifles as well as adding more value to medium snipers (like the recently added Centennial Sniper), allowing for much fewer frustrating interactions (e.g headshots that do not result in a killing blow) for those that enjoy playing the long-range sniper challenges.

Semi-Automatic and Double Action Weapons

Semi-Auto weapons now have increased sway with each shot fired in quick succession. This added sway value will decay over time allowing players to minimize the effect by carefully controlling and timing shots.

Weapons impacted by this change:

• Dolch and its variants.
• Bornheim No.3 and its variants.
• Nagant Officer and its variants.
• Crown & King Auto – 5.

Developer note:

With this change we introduced new parameters which will help in balancing existing and future weapons even further. This allows us to differentiate weapons with similar characteristics more effectively (think Bornheim compared to Dolch). For example, the Dolch and its variants will have increased sway much faster (and to a higher maximum sway value) compared to the Bornheim. Whereas for the Nagant Officer variants, it will not be as noticeable, but will still have an impact.

This change means there is now more incentive to time your shots in ADS and keep the spamming to shoulder aim where the spread has an even bigger effect of their performance over distance.

Dolch 96 Balance Changes

Animation

• Increased the full reload time (stripper clip) to 6 seconds (previously 5s).
• Increased the partial reload time (Single bullet) to 2 seconds (previously 1s).
• Fixed an issue where the Dolch 96 Precision stripper clip reload time was shorter than the base versions. Reload times have now been adjusted and aligned.

Performance

• Decreased damage to 97 (previously 110)
• Decreased Effective range to 78m (previously (86m)
• Decreased Handling stat for the Dolch 96 to 61% (previously 72%)
• Decreased Handling stat for the Dolch 96 Precision to 69% (previously 80%)

Developer notes:

Our aim with every weapon in Hunt is to ensure that they feel as fair as possible while giving them best feeling from both sides of the kill. With this change, we want to alleviate some of the bias that the weapon has and acknowledge that it performed slightly too well in certain areas.

The decrease in damage lessens the overall effective range as well as making it more important to focus on hitting center mass due to the reduced “two-shot” kill range.

Additionally, individual shots have much more value tied to them due to the extra investment needed with reloading and controlling the sway. This means that a missed shot is now going to be more impactful against the shooter and allow for more opportunities to capitalize on their sloppiness.

The Dolch is a powerful weapon by nature, so we want to make sure that it still feels strong. However, its power should be harnessed and controlled by the shooter and not dominate any encounter by default.

Bornheim Match

• Increased the base damage for the Bornheim Match to 80 (previously 74). This change also increases the damage for its custom ammo types.

Custom Ammo

Full Metal Jacket

• Increased the damage drop off distance (able to deal damage over longer distances):
• In practice, this results in a slightly increased Effective Range (for headshots). Check the weapon stats in game for more details.

Dragonbreath

• Increased the damage and burning effect at close range.
• Still will not OHK (one-hit kill).

DumDum

• No longer has a reduction in damage over base ammo (except for the Nitro Express).

Incendiary

• No longer has a reduction in damage over base ammo.

Handling Stats

• Decreased the Handling stat for the Crown & King Auto-5 to 78% (previously 89%).
• Decreased the Handling stat for the Dolch 96 to 61% (previously 72%).
• Decreased the Handling stat for the Dolch 96 Precision to 69% (previously 80%).

Caldwell Rival and Nitro Animation re-work

• We have made some changes to the animations for both weapons. When reloading, the empty shells will no longer auto eject but will be manually removed by the Hunter. This is just a visual change and does not affect reload time or any other aspects of the weapons.

Developer notes:

These changes are aimed at bringing these weapons more in line with their real life counter parts in terms of the reload logic without affecting their balance or place in the meta.

Nagant 1895 Officer and Brawler Animation adjustment

• We have made some adjustments to the shooting animation for both variants so there is no longer a delay between the shot and the recoil ensuring the weapons are going to feel more satisfying than before.

Specter 1882 reload logic changes

• This update see’s the beginning of some changes to the specter and its variants (like the bolt action changes we brought with Update 1.5.2). Now you will no longer lose a shell if you reload before racking the slide.

Hunter

Retaliation Reward

• Players will now be rewarded upgrade points from killing/looting a hunter that previously killed you in the current match.
• 2 Upgrade points will be rewarded once you loot the downed hunter.
• Points will only be awarded if this hunter killed you at any point during the match (prior to you killing them).
• Points will only be rewarded if you deal the killing blow to said hunter.

UI

MMR & post-match Team Details

With this update, we are introducing a feature aimed at providing more information post-match regarding the teams you fight with. This will allow you to compare your teams rating (Match MMR) against other to hopefully have a better understanding of the ratings of that group composition as well as understand why a potentially higher skilled player can end up on a team with a similar skill rating to your own (team rating and individual rating will be visible).

One factor that always needs to be considered in that balance of a match is the region you are playing. Regions like EU and the US have a much more precise bracket system (higher player base in those regions means more brackets available) compared to regions like OCE and South America. If you are in a low population region, the matchmaking will not be as precise, and you may still encounter some uneven matchups, but this is to avoid empty games.

**Please note that matchmaking is currently not enabled on the test server since numbers on the test server are quite low. So, you will not encounter any even matches while playing on Test. This system will work as intended once it reaches the live servers where MM brackets are in place.

MMR stars and what they mean

The stars are a visual representation of the MMR ranges. MMR is your personal PVP (Player Versus Player) rating that can range from 0-5000. 1 star means you have a rating between 0-2000 and 6 stars will mean you are between 3000-5000. Most players are in the ranges of 2600-2800 which is a 3–5 star rating (but most players in this range are predominantly 4 stars).

We have added a graph to the Bounty Hunt lobby and the team details screen that will show an approximation of the player numbers for each MMR rating. See the image below as a reference:

• 1 star: between 0 and 2000 MMR.
• 2 stars: between 2000 and 2300 MMR.
• 3 stars: between 2300 and 2600 MMR.
• 4 stars: between 2600 and 2750 MMR.
• 5 stars: between 2750 and 3000 MMR.
• 6 stars: between 3000 and 5000 MMR.

Developer note:

Please be aware that the stars are not equal to matchmaking brackets. Certain regions have more matchmaking brackets (EU/US) while other have less (OCE) while the MMR ranges will be the same among all regions and are representing your calculated skill.

This also means that you are likely to see more balanced games in regions with a higher population and more matchmaking bracket (EU/US) than in smaller regions (OCE).

The exact brackets and their ranges will be kept as internal information as they are constantly being tweaked and adjusted based on the data/telemetry we gather on a regular basis.

Lobby changes

• Added the stars rating to the Bounty Hunt lobby for you and your partners.
• Match MMR is displayed above the matchmaking options. This is calculated when your full group is formed and will recalculate if players leave, or new players are added to the group.
• Individual MMR will be displayed by full stars only (no half star increments). Match MMR can increase in half star increments.
• MMR will not be displayed (will appear as locked) for new players. This will be available once you have completed the trainee mode.
• A tooltip in the top left of the Lobby will display a graph of the player. distribution by MMR ranges (see above image)

Additional changes related to MMR

• Added a button to the mission summary page to bring up the team details screen which will show the following details:
  • On the left of the screen, you will see your team.
  • On the right will be the teams/hunters that were in your previous match.

• Screen details:
  • MMR of all Hunters.
  • Match MMR of all groups.
  • An icon to show if Skill-based MM was enabled for these groups.
  • Active modifier for the Match MMR of the group:
  • Solo will be represented as “Strong.”
  • Random Duo will be represented as “Medium.”
  • Invite duo and Random trio will be represented as “Low”
  • Invite trio will have no modifier.

Developer note:

In previous updates, and in our communication around matchmaking, we mentioned that there are different modifiers applied depending on the group composition. This addition is aimed at giving some representation of the modifiers without giving details of the actual numbers used in the calculations.

• Additional identifiers will be visible if you interacted with a hunter during the match. Hunter names will be revealed if you interacted with an enemy in the following ways:
  • Killed a hunter.
  • Killed by a hunter.
  • If the hunter was a bounty/wellspring carrier.
  • If you were within comms range of the player (voice/text chat).

• Accolade cards for “Hunter killed” has been updated to show the star rating. Each star rating will have a set XP reward:
  • 1 star hunter: 150 exp
  • 2 stars hunters: 300 exp
  • 3 stars hunters: 450 exp
  • 4 stars hunters: 600 exp
  • 5 stars hunters: 750 exp
  • 6 stars hunters: 900 exp

• Death Screen changes:
  • The comparison and report buttons have been moved to the “Team details” screen that is available post-match.

• Added a new section to the in-game manual to further describe the new MMR stars feature.

Contextual Ping Markers

• Item Boxes, Special Ammo Crates and the small Ammo Packs now have their own icon when pinged.

Developer notes:

This is the first batch of new contextual ping markers that we will be adding. We plan to extend this system much further in future updates to allow players to better communicate with each other in different scenarios. More details on new additions to this system will be announced in future updates.

Status Effects Display

Active Status effects and the time remaining will now be displayed in the left corner of the HUD. Currently, two status effects will be shown:

• Poison immunity after taking an Antidote shot and the remaining time before it wears off.
• Unlimited Stamina after taking the Stamina shot and the remaining time before it wears off.

This system will also correctly display the time left after stacking shots.

Brand new shops

New subtab – DLC shop

• This new subtab of the store will allow you to browse the DLC’s available for Hunt for a better browsing and navigation experience.

New subtab – Hunter Shop

• This new tab of the store will be the new home for all the Legendary Hunters we have to offer in Hunt showdown as well as improving visibility around aspects such as their unlock requirements. This is where you will first unlock Legendary Hunters, but once purchased, additional Hunters can be recruited through the Recruitment tab as always.

Reworked Subtab – Legendary Weapons shop

• Improvements made to the Legendary weapons shop. Weapon presentation and details such as unlock requirements should now be much clearer improving the overall experience with this part of the store.

Developer note:

These store changes are an important update for us as we have wanted to provide a much better experience for our players. We should note that these changes are only the first steps we are taking and have much more to come. Our overall goal is it improve the visibility, navigation, and usability of all aspects of the store, but we will dive deeper into that in future updates.

Additional changes

• Visual update of the buttons (“Play Bounty Hunt,” “Back,” etc.)
• Visual update of the tab and subtab bars.
• The default sorting order of weapons in the Roster page has been updated to an alphabetical order.

Additional change for Consoles and PC with Controller

• All button hints at the bottom of the screen have been removed. These icons are not included in the buttons themselves. This change should allow for better readability for any of our players using controllers and open new possibilities for the future.

Store

• Added Legendary Winfield 1887 “Storm Chaser” for 700 BB.
  • Few hunters brave the Bayou when hurricane winds shake the tupelo trees, and the storm tide rises high on stilted, swaying shacks. Those that do are fond of Storm Chaser, a Winfield 1887 Terminus whose thunderous peal rings familiarly in the cacophony of the hunt.

Bug fixes and Known issues will be added at a later stage during the test phase.

Happy Test Hunting!