TheHunter: Primal
Test
Game Update 9th June 2015
- Fix for a common crash when playing with players and one gets attacked by a Quetzalcoatlus
- Fix for a crash that could happen if a player disconnects while another was being hunted by a Quetzalcoatlus
Discussion
Interview with game designers
Ahoy pioneers! A lot of you expressed concern that you haven’t heard from us in a while, so I’ve asked our game designers Daniel and Pär to join me for a short interview about the past, present and future of theHunter: Primal.
Hi guys, thanks for agreeing to answer a couple of question. Can you briefly remind us how theHunter: Primal was hatched?
As you know, the game was born as a side project alongside our main baby – theHunter. We decided to take a stab at the whole hunting dinosaurs/survival idea with a short Early Access phase which lasted from mid-December until the end of March. When we took the plunge into this adventure, we didn’t know how successful it would be, so we made a point of communicating our plans and intentions to the community early on, as well as what content and features we planned to introduce at the full release.
How did it go?
It’s been an extremely intense, fun and rewarding time for us! The Primal community was engaged and enthusiastic right away, we were receiving tons of feedback and the work was humming non-stop for an entire three months.
How would you evaluate the results?
Well, we managed to pull it off in such a short space of time and deliver on everything we’d planned (and more). As we promised back in December, we released two new dinosaur species, an in-game currency reward and XP system, an in-game store, PvP mechanics and team support, 2 new weapons, localization into 12 languages and, in close collaboration with the community, we did lots of tweaking, polishing and bug fixing (someone counted that we’ve implemented over 250 separate changes and bug fixes).
Did everything go according to the initial plan?
Of course not, this is game development after all. For one, there were a couple of unplanned features and changes we brought in because players really wanted (and frankly deserved) them, such as stacking and splitting ammo, new weather and sound effects, removal of the annoying disconnect screen, an improved technical solution for hosting multiplayer games and other minor things.
Then, after the full release on March 31st we received a great deal of feedback regarding the flying dinosaur Quetzalcoatlus, dino AI, lack of weapons and persistence of bugs, which we of course had to act on. This in a way prolonged the initially planned development phase during which we were releasing weekly updates with bug fixes, dinosaur AI tweaks, 4 new weapons and rare dinosaur achievements.
So, what now?
We all love Primal here and we hope that in the future we’ll be able to bring in more updates to the game and maybe even new content, but right now the primary focus of the team is on the flagship product of our studio – theHunter. This doesn’t mean we’ve abandoned or given up on Primal, but please expect less frequent patches and communication in the near future. You can be assured that we’re reading and keeping track of all feedback, and we’re also planning to release the occasional game update from time to time. Please stay tuned!
And the last question, what has been your favourite thing about theHunter: Primal?
Daniel: I think the best thing about Primal is that the gameplay still is so intense even though I have been working on the game since day one. I know what is going on behind the scenes but I still get scared when I hear those damn Utahraptors calling from the shadows in the forest.
Pär: For me it is probably the variation. You need a totally different mindset when thinking about the design for Primal in comparison to theHunter. The gameplay, pacing and goals in Primal are so unlike theHunter which makes it quite refreshing and exciting to work with.
Thanks for your time guys, and happy hunting!
Discussion
Game Update 2015050701
- Changed Quetzalcoatlus behaviour when attacking player, instead of grabbing him/her directly, it will use claw attack to lower the health and when the health is low enough it will try to grab him/her, giving the player more chances to shoot it down.
- Triceratops vitals tweaked, projectiles now have a harder time penetrating it.
Bug fixes
- Fixed correct reload amount for the Riot Shotgun
- Improved dinosaurs behaviour when choosing target player
- Fix for Quetzalcoatlus getting stuck in grab animation after missing player
- Fix for dinosaurs rotations when in angry mode
- Fix for dinosaur behaviour when multiple players shoot at it (should switch target player back and forth between them)
- Fix for Triceratops when they flee, they would run and stop at a given distance instead of continuing fleeing
- Tweaked dinosaurs pathfinding map
In progress
- Bug sweep
- Pathfinding fixes for the ruin locations
Discussion
Game Update 2015043001
Features
Changes
Bug fixes
In progress
Discussion
Game Update 2015042401
* Fix for items duplication bug
Game Update 2015042302
New weapons added:
Already existing weapons:
Changes
Bug fixes
In progress
Discussion
Game Update 2015041604
- New achievements for rare dino variations – time for all the hardcore hunters out there to prove just how hardcore they really are
Changes
- T-Rex AI improvements - when hit by a bullet/arrow, it will run towards where the shot was fired from and start searching for the player
- T-Rex AI improvements - if player is unreachable, the T-Rex will give up and go away instead of staying still in the same place
- Added weapon slot 3 to the key mapping
- Updated localization
- Increased number of sounds played by every dinosaur to try to minimize sound cut offs and silent footsteps
- Polished T Rex audio presence – illustrating that he’s scenting and searching for you with breaths, growls and snorts
- Thunder sounds post flash – now rolls for 10 sec plus on all flashes, adding to the rumbling
- Dawn and Dusk sounds now properly mixed in relation to time of day
- Sound emitters for Dense Forest borders are now better mixed with Field and Swamp environment audio
Bug fixes
- Fix for map fragments not being removed correctly
- Fix for the inventory – it now resets after being closed
- It’s no longer possible to go to inventory, stats, etc. from the confirm kill screen.
- Fix for the crash that happened when players tried to use a weapon when still in loading screen
- Players can no longer access chest / grave inventory when dead
- You no longer get 2 kills in the statistics when harvesting a dinosaur
- All categories of sound are now prioritized to avoid accidental drop outs because of too many sounds playing
- Optimized channel usage based on time of day – less stress for the sound system, further minimizing probability of audio dropouts
- Fix for broken shadows on NVidia hardware
- Random crash fixes
In progress
- Utahraptor AI
- Further tweaking and polishing the dinosaurs
Discussion
Game Update 2015040905
- Quetzalcoatlus loses interest in the player after a few failed attacks, or after the player survives a drop
Changes
- Items dropped close to another bag will now be added to the existing bag instead of creating a new bag
- Removed the “fired at” chat message. This message only indicated that a player was firing at a dinosaur and not that the player actually hit the dinosaur. This has caused some confusion among players and bloated the chat window. This is an experimental feature and we’d like to hear your feedback on it.
- Added new sounds for the Quetzalcoatlus (ground impact, death sound and others)
- Added player gound impact sound when falling
- Updated translations
- Tweaked sound levels on night time sounds
Bug fixes
- Fix for random crash when someone killed another player in pvp
- Fix for collectables giving more health then intended
- Fix so players recieve stat increase even if they are not the confirming player
- Fix for never ending screeming after being dropped from a Quetzalcoatlus
- Fix for being unable to join a server without password
- Fix for “?” instead of player name when someone harvests a dinosaur
In progress
- T-Rex AI
Discussions
Game Update 2015040201
- Decreased the number of Quetzalcoatlus
- Tweaked the spawning map for Quetzalcoatlus, now they spawn closer to the volcano and not over the whole map
- Fix for the bug with items disappearing from death bags
- Removed drop release damage for Quetzalcoatlus (impact fall damage has not been removed though)
- Fix fo the issue with Quetzalcoatlus getting stuck in animations
- Fix for the bug giving players unlimited ammo
- Fix for Quetzalcoatlus's clue icon on the SettlerMate
- Fix for Quetzalcoatlus's stats, now they are shown on the stats page
In progress
- Tweaking the Quetzalcoatlus’s gameplay.
Discussion