Update 5.0

Update 5.0 was released 12th of March 2019.

Version: v0.573

SteambuildID: 3628226

Client patch size: ~3.5GB

Patches

 * (18.03.2019) Update 5.0 - Patch 1

Immolator - New Special AI that will set all ablaze

Quickplay - Expanding horizons on Lawson Delta

Bornheim No. 3 - A new addition to the compact pistol family

Shotgun Re-balance – A new take on multiple aspects of shotguns

Immolator
 * The Immolator has been added to the game as a New special AI!
 * Upon taking piercing damage (piercing his skin) the Immolator will explode and set everything on fire around him.
 * Fast and erratic movement speed.
 * It can open doors if locked out by players.
 * Will ignite explosive barrels, oil pools, players and other AI around him.
 * Can be found in and around compounds as well as in open areas.

Developer Note: The Immolator is our first new bipedal AI and the first AI added since the Water Devil last year. We looked at our cast to see where we are lacking currently and decided that a chaotic, fast moving AI for inside compounds and indoor areas would be a great addition to mix things up a bit! The Immolator's main role is to act as a shock troop that can wreak havoc and cause confusion very quickly when triggered. He is fairly easy to dispatch with aimed fire, but unless you kill him with blunt melee attacks, his skin will crack open causing him to combust and set things on fire around him. Being immune to fire himself, he will keep on coming forward in a rampage and pressure Hunters to deal with him or retreat to higher ground until his life energy is depleted and he ultimately collapses into a heap of burning ashes.

Quick Play on Lawson Delta Bornheim No. 3 Pistol Shotgun Re-balance
 * When playing Quick Play, players will now find themselves spawn randomly on either Lawson Delta or Stillwater Bayou
 * New semi-automatic pistol
 * Fires compact ammunition with a high rate of fire
 * Feeds from 5 round ammo clips that are inserted on the side of the weapon. Ammo can also be topped up one by one.
 * It benefits from the Bulletgrubber Trait, due to its rough loading mechanism and experimental nature (it was still quite revolutionary for its time!)
 * Overall reduction of shotgun spread across all weapons for tighter spread patterns
 * Stronger difference in spread between shotguns, while still respecting overall attributes like barrel length
 * The Romero 77 has the best accuracy and range of all shotguns now
 * The Rival 78 can be considered the baseline shotgun with average range and damage
 * The Auto-5 is more difficult to rapid fire with, as the recoil can push the crosshair off the target quite easily now
 * The Specter 1882 trades fire-power for ammo capacity, allowing it to fire slightly faster than before
 * The Handcannons follow a similar breakdown
 * The Romero 77 Handcannon has the best range and accuracy
 * The Rival 78 Handcannon is average, but can fire two shots in rapid succession
 * The Specter 1882 Compact has more ammo, but otherwise is close to the Rival's performance
 * The Romero 77 Hatchet has the power of the Rival 78 Handcannon, but comes with its signature axe melee attack.
 * Slight increase in overall shotgun range
 * Damage now reaches 0 at 40m instead of 30m
 * Handcannon damage now reaches 0 at 25m instead of 20m
 * Enemies now take slightly more shotgun damage to the head
 * It can be better to aim at the upper torso rather than aiming for the head directly depending on the range
 * AI heads will now correctly dismember based on where the damage is concentrated (Lucky Meatheads)

Developer Note:  With 5.0 we are finally able to take another look at how shotguns work in Hunt. We've never really been happy with the RNG gameplay their current implementation caused, spreading the individual shot pellets randomly within the spread cone defined by the crosshair. The changes we have done allow us to do two things: Make sure a certain number of pellets are more likely to hit closer to the center of the crosshair to help normalize damage between shots. And on the other hand, allow us to push shotgun gameplay closer to how real shotguns work. In video games, shotguns are often seen as room sweepers that pepper large areas, while in reality, the choke is actually quite narrow, requiring some aiming to be effective and being lethal at quite impressive distances still. Shotguns in HUNT will feel a bit different now, allowing players to reach out further with them, but also require more precise aiming to score hits. We also tried to make shotguns feel different now, with the Romero and its Handcannon variant having more range and a tighter spread pattern than the other shotguns to give them a meaningful place in the arsenal. Please spend some time playing with shotguns and also play AGAINST shotguns using other weapons to get a feeling for these changes and let us know how you feel about them. We plan on doing additional tweaks based on your feedback over the next weeks!

AI

 * General AI
 * First pass on AI navigation improvements to prevent them from getting stuck and/or not attacking.
 * Added hit-impact audio for Meathead and Butcher.
 * Grunts inside buildings will only aggro to gunshots from outside the buildings if they can see a target.
 * First pass on fixing glitches with AI's look directions.
 * Slightly reduced the blunt melee damage taken by the head of Grunts
 * Spider
 * Spider movement and balancing changes:
 * Greatly improved the fluidity of its movement across indoor surfaces.
 * Reduced overall movement speed.
 * Decreased the time the Spider will hide in one spot.
 * Decreased the search range for hiding spots.
 * Decreased the period of time between attacks.
 * Meathead
 * Players can now damage and dismember the limbs of the Meathead. (Not so lucky this time.)
 * Meathead no longer remains standing during it's death animation if burned
 * Increased render distance for leeches, they will not pop up unexpectedly
 * Hellhounds
 * Hellhound health rebalancing:
 * At close range they can still be killed in one shot with headshots
 * At medium range they require more shots using compact ammo.
 * We kept the long ammo to kill Hellhounds in one shot with headshots at all ranges
 * Improved visual fidelity for Hellhound deaths:
 * Improved reactions when dying from fire.
 * Hellhounds will no longer take flight when killed from an aerodynamic angle

Audio

 * Changed occlusion in underground areas: It does not fully mute the sound anymore instead it only muffles it.
 * Changed occlusion behavior over distance for better accuracy blending with the distance attenuation.
 * Footstep consistency pass: Minor adjustments on wood surface types, reducing the amount of creak.
 * Added Toggle in Audio Options to allow HUNT to output audio while not having the window focused.
 * Fixed issue on fusees to be audible from underground.
 * Explosion Improvements: Added more asset variation and short tinnitus effect when in close proximity.
 * Vegetation Improvements: Added more bushes and grass to make sound when passing through.
 * Reduced the pitch of footsteps on solid wood

Gunplay

 * The Chaos bomb is no longer destroyed by fire, but it will immediately trigger its effect instead
 * Fixed an issue where after the holding action was completed, holding the left mouse button led to an accidental shot.
 * After using the last charge of the Medkit now, the Hunter's primary weapon gets automatically selected.
 * New weapon variant added: Mosin Nagant M91 Obrez Mace
 * Variant of the Obrez with added metal club that makes it excellent for bashing in heads and killing Immolators without setting them on fire
 * New weapon variant added: Caldwell Pax Claw
 * Variant of the Pax with added blade at the pistol grip that causes Rending damage and can kill Grunts with a heavy melee attack to the head in one strike
 * Increased the rate of fire of the Specter 1882 pump-action shotgun and its variants
 * Shotguns lose slightly more damage at range (around 10% less between 5-15m distance)
 * Slight increase to Winfield 1873 C recoil (incl. variants like the Marksman and Silencer)
 * Slight increase to Winfield 1873 recoil and recoil recovery offset between shots (incl. variants like the Talon, Aperture and Swift)
 * Revolver balance pass
 * Nagant M1895 Officer and its variants now kick slightly more and are harder to keep on target between shots
 * The Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine and Nagant M1895 Precision have a slightly smoother recoil kick now, similar to the Winfield rifles to take the advantage of shoulder stabilization while firing a weak cartridge into account
 * Reduced recoil and increased accuracy for the Nagant M1895 Precision to make it stand out more from other weapons as a meaningful equipment choice
 * Reduced recoil, but also reduced accuracy for the Caldwell Conversion Chain Pistol to give it some drawbacks over the regular Caldwell Conversion revolver
 * Increased base damage of the Nagant M1895 Silencer (it will still drop damage faster over distance than the other Nagant M1895 however!)
 * Improved accuracy for the Caldwell Conversion pistol to help it find its place in the arsenal as a viable choice (last update we already changed it to have less recoil)

Developer Note: We went back and had a look at some of the base weapons in the game and discussed community feedback we received about them. The takeaway was that there are some weapons in the game that tend to be a bit too spammy right now, making lucky headshots during rapid fire very frustrating. We didn't want to fully redesign these guns and keep them close to their current behavior, but opted to make it slightly more challenging to keep your target in the sights between shots. We also identified some early game weapons that are hardly used at the moment once better guns become available, like the Nagant Precision, and looked at ways to make them more interesting for players. This is following our design philosophy of a flat weapon balance, where each guns have pros and cons.
 * Slightly increased heavy melee damage of Pistols, Handcannons and Obrez variants
 * Bear traps will now dismember both Hellhound and Armored legs as intended
 * Additional tuning of hit prediction and validation settings to help reduce 'lost shots'
 * Additional logging options to help us better understand problems with hit validation
 * Refactored the procedural sway system to improve pixel accuracy when aiming down sights

Developer Note: Previously the sway you would see while moving and aiming in Iron Sights would not be the true position of the crosshair, and while the effect was minimal it would still have the potential to achieve misleading aim and cause missed shots. With this change we have removed this misleading sway in favour of real camera sway which means the crosshair will be exactly where you are aiming. However, this may lead to slightly more difficult aim and a noticeable motion change. Please give us your feedback on these changes!

Hunters

 * Using First Aid Kit now pauses bleeding damage while in progress
 * We have tentatively fixed an issue where the Vitality Shots/Medkits did not work as intended.
 * The Electric Light tool now causes a blinding effect when aimed at another Hunter, making it harder for them to accurately return fire
 * This is very helpful when assaulting or defending buildings and doorways, giving the player carrying the light a slight advantage
 * This works best at night and in very dark areas. The effect during daytime is very subtle and does not offer any reliable protection
 * Adjusted the unlock Rank of the First Aid Kit, it now unlocks at Rank 1
 * Trait Unlock Pass
 * Moved Conduit to Bloodline Rank 1
 * Moved Greyhound to Bloodline Rank 1
 * Moved Packmule to Bloodline Rank 1
 * Moved Hornskin to Bloodline Rank 2
 * Moved Gator Legs to Bloodline Rank 5
 * Moved Resilience to Bloodline Rank 9

Developer Note: Until now, players could only ever start equipping traits on their Hunters starting from Bloodline Rank 6, where the first trait was unlocked. We originally had it like this to allow the player to get used to basic controls and handling first before throwing more mechanics at them. However, we felt that not being able to spend your Upgrade Points meant they would just pile up, which was very unsatisfying - especially since our change that you don't lose Hunters during Trainee Mode. Now, players can start spending their Upgrade Points right away and have access to some meaningful traits in the early game to help them stay alive!

Quick Play

 * Free Hunters earned in Quick Play will now use the earned XP to level up instead of the XP flowing directly into the Bloodline
 * This also means, Quick Play recruits usually have some Upgrade Points on them to use right away when added to your roster.
 * Added anti-camping mechanics for Rifts that makes them glow red when enemies are nearby
 * Starting gear for shotguns has been adjusted. Players will now start with one of the following shotguns:
 * Romero 77
 * Romero 77 Handcannon
 * Caldwell Rival 78 Handcannon

Bounty Hunt

 * Added anti-camping mechanics for Clues that makes them glow red when enemies are nearby
 * Added three additional options for possible exit points to both Stillwater Bayou and Lawson Delta

Meta

 * Challenges
 * Added additional challenges to the pool
 * Kill X Enemies (any type) with Headshots
 * Collect X Clues of Spider/Butcher/Any Boss
 * Get X Clean Sweeps for Spider/Butcher/Any Boss
 * Loot X Bounty Tokens for Spider/Butcher/Any Boss
 * Locate X Boss Lairs of the Spider/Butcher/Any Boss
 * Extract X Free Hunters from Quick Play
 * Be the first to activate the Wellspring in Quick Play X times
 * Added the Immolator as an option to all other AI-related challenges
 * Lowered the completion threshold for some challenges with low completion rates
 * Adjusted some of the rewards earned from completing challenges
 * Recruits
 * Players will only be offered one Tier 3 Hunter recruit at a time now.
 * For a Tier 3 Bloodline, the following recruits will be available now:
 * 1x (free) Tier 1 Hunter
 * 2x Tier 2 Hunters
 * 1x Tier 3 Hunter
 * The base cost of recruits have been increased slightly, but they come with more default traits
 * Tier 1 Hunter: 1 Trait
 * Tier 2 Hunter: 2-3 Traits
 * Tier 3 Hunter: 3-4 Traits

Store
Moved Combat Axe to Bloodline Rank 1
 * New Equipment
 * Added Bornheim No.3 at Bloodline Rank 21 for 63$
 * Added Caldwell Pax Claw at Bloodline Rank 46 for 117$
 * Added the Mosin Nagant Obrez Mace at Bloodline Rank 79 for 295$
 * Default Gear Changes
 * Moved Winfield M1873C to Bloodline Rank 1
 * Moved Romero 77 Handcannon to Bloodline Rank 1
 * Price Changes
 * Romero 77 cost increased from $4 to $34
 * Romero 77 Talon cost increased from $15 to $48
 * Romero 77 Handcannon cost increased from $4 to $30
 * Romero 77 Hatchet cost increased from $29 to $32
 * Specter 1882 cost increase from $75 to $103
 * Specter 1882 Bayonet cost increase from $105 to $123
 * Specter 1882 Compact cost increase from $65 to $99
 * Winfield M1873 C cost increase from $22 to $46
 * Nagant M1895 Officer Brawler cost increase from $30 to $46
 * Nagant M1895 Officer Carbine cost increase from $36 to $46
 * Additional Store Changes
 * Comparative weapon stats have been updated to reflect the latest balancing changes

Performance
Performance updates in this patch focused primarily on asset and level fixes as well as optimization to game features. Low spec configuration should also notice a quality improvement.
 * Enabled detail grass on low spec configurations. This should improve quality for users running on low spec without impacting performance.
 * Enabled shadow casting on large grass patches on low spec. This should improve quality for users running on low spec without impacting performance.
 * Optimized drawcall count in Lawson Delta and Stillwater Bayou which can benefit CPU limited hardware
 * Optimized shadow casting objects in both maps as not all objects need to cast shadows in many cases
 * Removed duplicate objects and cleaned up placement of geometry in both maps
 * Found and fixed a number of entities that should be simple geometry
 * Greatly reduced the entity count of spawnable objects to reduce cost on CPU
 * Cleaned up and improved LODs for many objects and added some missing LOD’s
 * Cleaned up and optimized the cost of world lighting in both maps
 * Cleaned up object rendering distance of many objects and vegetation to be more consistent
 * Restructured culling setup of underground areas to be more efficient and less buggy
 * Fixed a number of expensive physics proxies
 * Optimized Port Reeker
 * Optimized Stillwater
 * Fixed an issue with rope simulation that could cause chain traps to be updated even when they were not active
 * Optimized shotgun projectile updates to be more efficient
 * Fixed a number of possible stalls when approaching compounds
 * Reduced cost of clue updates again
 * Reduced the memory we use for the terrain render targets
 * Optimized animation cost of doors and windows that could cost something every frame even when not animating on the client
 * Optimized decal placement in both levels
 * Fixed a number of obsolete materials and orphan textures
 * Optimized placement of cloth in compounds to be more evenly distributed
 * Optimized shadow casting lights to be more efficient
 * Optimized animal attractors (Ravens, Ducks and Horses) to be simpler and less expensive
 * Optimized animated objects to be more efficient server side

World

 * General
 * The search-lights are now adjustable in Lawson Delta
 * Breakable branches have been added to Lawson Delta
 * Anti-camping layout and location changes on both maps
 * Stillwater Bayou church towers and elevated vantage points of Lawson Delta have been adjusted
 * AI propagation consistency pass on Lawson Delta
 * Additional spots where supply stations can be found
 * All Times of Day have been added to both maps now
 * Lawson Delta now also features Fog and Golden daytime
 * Stillwater Bayou now also features Neutral daytime
 * Hunting towers have interactive shutters now for better cover and they now allow players to escape without using the ladder
 * Implemented additional set dressing and level theming in Lawson Delta.
 * Animal Traps
 * Performance optimizations
 * Reworked how player actions factor into their escalation:
 * Players should be aware of their proximity and speed as ways to escalate: the closer and faster you move around them, the earlier they will escalate
 * Crouching however, is generally considered safe until you get really close.
 * Players can now safely stand up (not moving) to aim over cover and sit back down again without the risk of escalating.
 * Reworked how sounds (predominantly gunshots) are evaluated:
 * The weapon type heavily influences the distance and the number of shots you can safely fire without escalating.
 * For example: A pistol shot at 15 meters might have the same effect as a shotgun shot at 30 meters. With smaller calibers, it can take several shots to eventually escalate them.
 * Horses became tougher:
 * Horses have health now which means only a few weapons can kill them with one shot to the body
 * Shots to the head or neck, however, will still be considered an instant kill (includes throwing knifes).
 * Horses are more calm by default:
 * Horses stay in a silent idle state as long as no escalating factors are present (players that are not crouched, gunshots, etc.) making it easier to sneak past them.
 * This is a compensation for the health changes mentioned above. Neutralizing a horse is no longer the only viable option to avoid escalating it.

Developer Note:  Overall, we are happy with the place our animals occupy in Hunt and the gameplay they provoke. However, we identified a few circumstances where they could escalate accidentally even though players were aware of them. With our new implementation we try to emphasize their role as passive threats. Players should be more comfortable when actively trying to avoid them. On the flip side they will escalate more easily when ignored or handled carelessly. The balancing of the animals is an ongoing process. Feel free to give feedback on how they should react to players.

Service

 * Account Linking: Players can now create and link a Crytek account to their Steam accounts to help us communicate directly with our community. There will be a one-time reward of $5000 in in-game currency for players, who wish to do so. The players who already linked their account on the Test Server will have to perform the action on the Live server again as the linking is steam application specific. Account Linking is optional, players can always skip it and do it at a later time from the Options Menu, however, we would really appreciate if you could take a moment and sign up!AI

Bug fixes

 * Adjusted systems to make the med-kit and shot consumables more reliable to use
 * Fixed a bug where occlusion did not work as intended
 * Fixed a bug that caused AI to spawn inside the Butcher’s boss arena in Stillwater Bayou
 * Fixed a bug that let players interact with doors, gates, shutters and cranks through solids
 * Fixed a bug where the Contraband Discard warning message did not trigger for any items when Dismissing or Retiring a Hunter
 * Fixed a bug that rendered the bear traps non intractable
 * Fixed a bug that prevented Waterdevils to take damage from Liquid Fire Bombs
 * Fixed a bug where Oil pool kills did not count towards kills
 * Fixed multiple environmental items where players could get stuck
 * Fixed a bug where players could get stuck after being revived behind a ladder
 * Fixed a bug where Crows appeared invisible in some instances
 * Fixed a bug where AI was unable to spot players in some cases
 * Fixed various bugs where the Butcher and Spider could get stuck
 * Fixed a big where AI could spawn in unreachable areas
 * Fixed a bug where clues could spawn in the boss arena
 * Fixed a bug that allowed the dynamite bundle to instantly kill bosses
 * Fixed a bug where the Fullscreen Windowed setting did not work as intended
 * Tentatively reduced occasions of stretched models appearing in distance
 * Fixed a bug that caused the server to crash at the end of the session
 * Fixed a bug that allowed AI to spawn inside or walk into game assets
 * Fixed a bug where players could get stuck behind an ammo box in Lockbay Docks
 * Fixed a bug where used consumables appeared as still available
 * Fixed a bug that caused the bounty to become unreachable in cases the boss was killed next to Ammo boxes
 * Fixed a bug where AI could spawn on roofs
 * Fixed an issue where no death screen information was displayed when a Player gets killed by another Player who has already left the mission
 * Fixed a bug where players could fall out of the map
 * Fixed a bug that caused the Beastface trait not to work in Quickplay
 * Fixed a bug where players couldn’t shoot through mesh grating in windows frames
 * Fixed some cases where the AI would jitter
 * Fixed an issue where the searchlights on Lawson Delta still had collision after being destroyed
 * Fixed a bug where a reward pop up message appeared when recruiting a new Hunter on a fresh bloodline
 * Fixed derringer texture issues
 * Fixed a hole in the ground in Stillwater Bayou
 * Fixed a missing roof in Golden Acres
 * Fixed a fence where players could get stuck at Hemlock and Hide
 * Fixed an issue that allowed 'hold' actions to be completed by pressing ESC while holding the F key
 * Fixed some invisible proxies still having collisions in some areas of the map
 * Fixed an issue where Lawson Delta was showing water at a place with no water
 * Fixed one cause of matchmaking issue that prevented players from joining sessions
 * Fixed an issue when playing the game for the first time, name and ready status didn’t get displayed for the random partner on the Contract screen
 * Fixed an issue where the ‘Last Match’ box on the Bloodline Screen did not retain the last partner’s name after a client restart
 * Fixed an issue where the contract icons were not consistent across languages
 * Fixed a bug where Crows and Ducks did not die when hit by Frag Bombs
 * Fixed an issue where the Hand Crossbow and Poison variants had their ammo icons displayed twice in the Menus
 * Implemented a number of animation bug fixes

Known issues

 * Some players may encounter the following error message on startup “Default system texture "%ENGINE%/EngineAssets/Textures/White.dds" failed to load”
 * The mouse cursor may become visible in-game, after Alt+Tabbing out and then back to the game
 * Some assets may appear invisible
 * Clients may get a “Failure Detected” error message while searching for a server
 * Player positions might not get synced to other players when having bad connection
 * The game client may crash occasionally
 * In some cases the resolution may not match the size of the screen on startup
 * In some scenarios light sources such as a lantern or the Sun can be seen through geometry
 * Closing doors right next to AI causes them to get stuck
 * Some textures may appear low quality
 * Some assets might appear as low resolution / low poly, even on high settings.
 * Audio occlusion may not work properly in some places
 * During Quickplay Healing stations may become non-interactable after dropping a lantern without using it
 * Some structures only load in at short distance regardless of the global quality settings
 * Dust/smoke particles may disappear under specific conditions
 * Some shadows may appear without an obvious source
 * Players queuing for Random contracts may end up with a Spawn Point selection screen
 * In some cases packet loss can lead to ammo issues (shots not firing even though ammo is displayed as available)
 * Getting revived with 2 large weapons equipped breaks the usage of one of the equipped weapons
 * Shutters may disappear at certain distances
 * Vaulting after picking up a world item may break the functionality of the item
 * Gunshot audio may get skipped in rare cases when the audio system is overloaded
 * The HUD for the wellspring carrier does not update for other player when the carrier is disconnected
 * Ai may attack quicker than usual when switching between targets
 * When hipfiring shortly after a light melee attack with the Bornheim No. 3 causes the shot to trigger earlier than the animation suggest
 * Throwing knifes do not work and disappear when hitting AI over large distances
 * Some water reflections move with the player’s position in the game world
 * Some text is without localization for other languages than English
 * For random partners, the UI for one of the two players might not show the group, but still display "filling up team ..." instead, although they are already matched together
 * Ravens cannot be reliably burned by lanterns
 * Incorrect display of stacked consumables under certain circumstances
 * When canceling matchmaking in the last second, players might get a matchmaking failure
 * Map textures can be seen on screen while affected by poison
 * Consuming an item and switching to a weapon without releasing the mouse buttons results in a shot being fired
 * Banishable boss remains don't get outlined (in regular intervalls) like every other interactable object
 * nVidia Highlights are currently not working.