The Hunter

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Skybird

New species spotted. I will soon hunt ducks in Louisiana's swamps.

I was going to go hunt them today for real....

But I can't leave. I'm kinda sad.

Post some screenshots of the duck hunting in the game please.

EDIT: Game probably didn't model it...but don't look at the ducks when you're calling them in. They'll see your eyes.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Red October1984

Post some screenshots of the duck hunting in the game please.

New reserve is not yet released, but they are in the final stage. A christmas present? Or 2014? No word is given so far. The reserve is named as Rougarou Bayou.

Click the images here:

http://news.thehunter.com/status-update-64/

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Skybird

New reserve is not yet released, but they are in the final stage. A christmas present? Or 2014? No word is given so far. The reserve is named as Rougarou Bayou.

Rougarou Bayou...



Look out for Sasquatch when you're duck hunting.

Nah, Bigfoot is only on Whitetail Island...

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

Nah, Bigfoot is only on Whitetail Island...

Wiki lists the Rougarou as more of a werewolf....but I always had it explained as the Cajun Sasquatch.

Sasquatch-Wolf-Creature will get you if you aren't careful.

[Aktungbby]

je parle rougarou mon modified ami?

[Skybird]

The new reserve has been released. It comes together with new items for mallard hunting, and a re-activation of TrackIR (which went MIA with the introduction of MP).

Haven't tried it so far, but will this evening or tomorrow.

Time to get out the pump action!

Bang- tschack-tschack - Bang- tschack-tschack - Bang- tschack-tschack - Bang - tschack-tschack - Bang- tschack-tschack - Bang - tschack-tschack - tschack-tschack - tschack-tschack - tschack-tschack - "Sh!t..."

[Skybird]

Two movies, showcasing the new stuff.

(MP, the massacre starts at 2:40 )

(SP)

[GlobalExplorer]

They just released a 8x57 K98k that would be befitting to a U-boat man

...and I want it so much... yet I don't wish to support these devs any longer, alas not until they fix YEARS OLD bugs and address some long existing problems.

theHunter turned into a moneymakingmachine, nothing else. I have the feeling all the passion they once had is long gone and all that counts now are Dollars.

If they fix some bugs, minor or major, I might come back. Until then, nope. Not even for the K98, a weapon I hoped for back in 2010 when I started playing this game.

[Skybird]

Since late summer last year I had immense technical problems with their server as well, their updates froze and ended in taking hours and hours to download even a mere 10 MB update, with several attempts needed to even get that one done. First reacting polite, then patient and silent, next very cool and finally openly angry a month ago, that did nothing than earning me public attacks even when just stating the obvious. They did release quite some eye candy (for money) and new items (for money), but did not honour for over half a year the payments made in form of mandatory fees, and that finally really pissed me, and others.

With their latest server move, updates still come extremely slow and unreliably, but at last they do not freeze anymore. So I play it again, after all, it is a very good game indeed, but I do not invest anymore additional, money into except the mandatory yearly fee. Which at least is not as expensive as for example the hilarious pricing model of TES Online (which will never see me joining it).

I would tolerate the money-making additional offerings, after all you are free to pass on them, but that they failed to repair fundamental basics for so long time is what has left me in anger about them.

So, my relation with them has cooled very much. I do not give it up completely, the setting and ghraphcis and gameplay is just too good. 15 Euros per half a year, is okay.

The inventory bug sporadically still shows up. They have not solved it by that server movement. And the map takes longer now to load.

Advice of the day: if you are interested in the gameplay, go for it it, but buy only the essential kit so that you can hunt all species - not more: sufficient wepains to legally hunt all species, one camo set, some basic lures, binocular - in principle that's it. The new two flying species I would even pass on, the needed equipment is a money sink, really: up to 23 items, weapon and clothes not counted! Very bad joke.

[Skybird]

It seems the era of technical pitfalls and letdowns indeed has come to an end. Since last summer, not few players suffered from malfunctioning servers, resulting in game sessions disrupted by non-accessible inventories or freezing maps, as well as updates and patches freezing while being downloaded, or being downloaded at crawling speeds that made them a project of hours.

It took them almost half a year to start addressing these issues, and then another quarter of a year to resolve the issues. At the same time they nevertheless had the time to release plenty of payware items, reserves, and new species, which quite some people took queer. I had some initially polite and patient, but then increasingly angry arguments with their forums.

However, with their move to new servers, things slowly improved, and in the past couple of weeks I saw the major issues I attacked them for, going away one by one. Download of opatches still is a bit slow, but not that bad anbymore as if it would keep yopu away or stop you from playing, and mostly they are running at acceptable speeds now.

So since a few weeks I have started to find my enjoyment with this beautiful virtual world again. I can again with a good conscience recommend the game to people potentially being interested in its concept. The visual beauty, the gameplay, and the general mood and atmosphere never were in doubt anyway.

However, new players should act with hesitation and patience when deciding which equipmentg to buy, Expansive World carry The Hunter to Steam, the concepot serves for a mother comapony as a new busines smodel, and The Hunter itself has been beefed up with plenty of visual acessoires since release of multiplayer that have no gameplay value and only are cosmetic for multiplayer groups, and some new game concepts lioke hiunting geese and mallards have been turned into additioonal money generators, needing and/or offering quite a lot of additonal stuff for increasing the chances for successful hunting. Its not as bad as with mass online shooters, but a policy chnage has been done and the rersults from that are showing - if you think you really need all the gimmicks they offer, this now is an even more expensive game.

To do them fairness, you can do all reserves and wanted weapons and species with quite rudimentary expenses, and at this level you can not complain for sure, the game qulaity is ver yhigh, and the price for the deal "all reserves, all species, all needed ethical weapons" is okay. But they really try hard now to lure you into a thinking pattern where you spend several times as much money. So my advise: be restrictive with your buyings, be hesitent, and do not buy new gadgets as long as game experience has not proven you that youj have use for it.

And there is plenty of gadgets now, new weapons, aiming devices, clothing...

The "dry year" is over, it seems, it works reliably again now, and the game is as good again as it was before last summer, with several new species (18 in total now) and 7 reserves, and for those interested: multiplayer, it even is better than ever now. A new reserve is in the making.
After one rough year, the hunter is out there again!

I played it a lot the last month, a close friend sponsored me a 3months membership cause we enjoy hunting together. I earned like 10000em$ all by doing offers - with fake data and emails/trash email accounts of course - since I do not want to support it directly at the moment in protest of their way to suck every cent out of the members.

The severe technical difficulties of the past weeks didn't change my opinion and I haven't played in like a week or more. So I hope you are right and the very most of the issues are indeed gone. Things I experienced and that drove me nuts:

- Long loading times for inventory and map. Sometimes even black screens that will end the session for you. Great.
- Perfect shots on the Kammer being registered as "intestine hits". JFK's magic bullet would be jealous!
- Disconnects of players for no reason.

Think there was more but I don't remember.
Anyways, I hope you're right... I may hunt tonight and check it out. Did you hunt wabbits already?

Dem' so cutie cute!

[Skybird]

I can only repeat - the issues with inventory and map that have appeared last summer and for me lasted until their server change early spring, have not shown up since 4-5 weeks or so. The bugs apparently having plagued the mallard hunt, have gone for me, too. Technically, things work well for me, like in the beginning when I came to the game. The new launcher that now allows independent launching from any brwoser activity, also may have helped. It was released just days ago and works fine.

I accept them to want earning money - in the end I often said that good stuff MUST cost good money - and so I accept them tailoring some aspects in the game to that purpose, their business model is such that ongoing development needs ongoing funding, I just warn against swallowing each and any bait they offer you to waste money on, especially for pure cosmetic stuff only paying off - visually - in MP. They are more expensive than Steel Beasts, but less expensive than many of the popular mass online games, Skyrim online and so forth.

On MP I do not comment, since I do not play MP. I am SP exclusively, and as a SP player I am now happy again. I had several good sessions in the past three weeks that reminded me of why I once fell in love with this game originally. Its unique.

That new air gun works fun, btw.

[Skybird]

Yesterday, the game was released on Steam.

It is a phased release, with Germany, France and I think Britain going first. Other countries will follow. They do it, I assume, to not overwhelm their servers.

Yesterday also some people reported the old issue with server connectivity again, probably linked to the Steam release. People were unable to download updates, and play. Or the download took 20 min - 3 hours. Or ended in the need to reinstall the complete game (downloading it first, taking all day).

I have not been affected by this, however. I was affected from summer last year until spring this year - for three quarters of a year.

If people are affected by it, try to run the new launcher as administrator. It is said to solve issues for many people.

Steam forums are already full with comments from people demanding to be given all content and all stuff for FREE. As much as I question the latest sales policies they have implemented, I am at war with this attitude to demand stuff for free as well. Both are extremes.

I hope the technical issues some people got plagued by, will pass and will not spread again. But until today, I say again: technically all works well for me currently.