The Hunter CotW still Alpha

[knott]

Sure is things that is not developed proper yet and it was released as an early access title without the early access excuse moniker. But it runs better then Classic and overall don´t have more bugs and I have had 150h of great fun and can easilly do a thousand more so I got value anyway. For the number of towers I raised I wonder if 300 euro in the real currency is enough in the Hunter Classic. Just that then there is the rifles, bows, tents and what not.

[Tanngnjostr]

All in all I enjoy playing this game and it was worth 30 bucks for me, even in its current state. Of course I'd love those bugs to be fixed though.

you are the first person i have seen not have a problem with the price and state of the game as it was at release as well as in current state. something tells me that has to do with your moderator status on the forum and that having a major impact on your perception of a game that OBVIOUSLY was not ready for release.

30 bucks is half as much as most AAA titles cost. I never said I don't care for the bugs, but the game runs fine for me, I have yet to experience the first CTD and none of the bugs break the game for me. As I already said in this thread, this does of course depend on how different players assess certain bugs.

The fact that I'm a moderator in the official forum for tH:Classic does in no way impair my ability to rate another game of the same company or to decide whether I got something for my money.

As has already been proven, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. Note that DonderDeer and knott are not moderators on this forum, so maybe your theory needs to be reviewed.

[\m/]

Not alpha, but could be called late beta... i hope they implement a "disable HUD" function in the next time. I really miss this function, cuz in the last years i always hunted without any HUD - it destroys massive the immersion of the hunt!
Bugs are enough ingame for sure, but "only" around one ctd per hour for my system.

[BucksNBuffalo]

I also enjoy it, it's a nice departure from Classic, considering that I can hardly play Classic much because of that crippling map/inventory bug. The environments are incredible, the animals look good (for the most part, as the Whitetails and Blacktails could use a little improvement). Sure, it's got bugs, but who didn't expect that? Anyone that did was prett naive to begin with. And the majority of the bugs are not at all game breaking (I hate that phrase), mostly annoyances. The only thing IMO that needs immediate attention is the constant crashing, especially in MP. I have a few friends I play it with, and without fail their games always end in a crash. Sometimes it takes a while, other times it's within 5 min. Strangely tho, my game doesn't crash anywhere near as often. Is it worth the $30? IMO, yes. Now $60, no way would I have paid that.

[Eggenberg]

I don't see the game as being alpha or beta. It was deemed to be a release candidate and like all release candidates it comes with its issues. The crash issues that are so frequently cited over on the *ahem* other forum (clue: what comes off boiling water?) seem to be the most pressing issue; however, I can still in all honesty say I have not had one single CTD or feeze playing COTW other than one I caused myself. It's singing to the choir but with the many variations of pc hardware (and how that hardware's set up) out in the wider world there's going to be issues and these issues are going to be a pretty hefty task to pin down. This will obviously be a rolling process.

The bugs are what I'd have expected to see - pathfinding, flaky animal behaviour, problematic areas of the generated landscape - which were all evident in THC's infancy (and from reading posts on the wider THC forum they're still doing the rounds) but over time have been either addressed or been acknowledged as unfixable and I believe this will be the case in COTW's life cycle.

Personally I'd like to see COTW up the ante - make the animals more skittish, don't have them coming back so easily (Need-Zone nerf?), introduce a form of truracks (do any old campaigners remember THC's scoring system before that?) - essentially make COTW the all-singing & all-dancing THC for the future (and I know that's going to really nark a lot of commited THC players). The engine's beautiful (if you've not roamed around it in the flesh you're missing out), it's powerful with a heap of potential that I truly hope is utilised by EW. I expect the inevitable DLC and the more inevitable cries of "profiteering" by the usual suspects but if development in the game's progression to a more polished model continues then I'll pay my dues and enjoy the digi-hunt.

[Hawkeye]

I don't see the game as being alpha or beta. It was deemed to be a release candidate and like all release candidates it comes with its issues. The crash issues that are so frequently cited over on the *ahem* other forum (clue: what comes off boiling water?) seem to be the most pressing issue; however, I can still in all honesty say I have not had one single CTD or feeze playing COTW other than one I caused myself. It's singing to the choir but with the many variations of pc hardware (and how that hardware's set up) out in the wider world there's going to be issues and these issues are going to be a pretty hefty task to pin down. This will obviously be a rolling process.

The bugs are what I'd have expected to see - pathfinding, flaky animal behaviour, problematic areas of the generated landscape - which were all evident in THC's infancy (and from reading posts on the wider THC forum they're still doing the rounds) but over time have been either addressed or been acknowledged as unfixable and I believe this will be the case in COTW's life cycle.

Personally I'd like to see COTW up the ante - make the animals more skittish, don't have them coming back so easily (Need-Zone nerf?), introduce a form of truracks (do any old campaigners remember THC's scoring system before that?) - essentially make COTW the all-singing & all-dancing THC for the future (and I know that's going to really nark a lot of commited THC players). The engine's beautiful (if you've not roamed around it in the flesh you're missing out), it's powerful with a heap of potential that I truly hope is utilised by EW. I expect the inevitable DLC and the more inevitable cries of "profiteering" by the usual suspects but if development in the game's progression to a more polished model continues then I'll pay my dues and enjoy the digi-hunt.

It's okay to refer to the Steam Forum. After all, that is the official Forum for CotW, not here. I think with CotW, as is the case with most games, issues are blown out of proportion a bit. That's not to say they aren't happening, because they are. When it comes to crashes, specifically, the vast majority of players that experience them will hop over to the Steam Forums, make a quick post to vent their anger, then hop back in the game. This is why you always see more posts about CTD's (since they throw the player out of the game & gives them an opportunity to post) in comparison to other bugs, which would require the player to actually stop hunting to report.

I'm also in the camp of those that enjoy the game & certainly think it is worth the $30. I'm impressed with the number of updates so far. For a one-time fee release to have 5-6 bug fix patches and a game update within the first month is impressive, in my eyes. theHunter Classic players are used to this, but we've been playing a game with a different business model. When compared to other one-time purchase games, CotW is being given much development attention. I am also among those that have only crashed one time, which was something I caused (alt-tabbing out and doing the CotW/Classic gun promotion while game was running in background).

[\m/]

For a “one-time fee release“ which has ctd's for many players and with a long list of bugs (they dont need to be game breaking), the release of patches is at a normal rate - not impressive.
Todays standard at many game-companys is to release a game to early - and let the players fill the list of mainbugs which need to fixed fast to get not many negative reviews. Seems all is normal.

[insub]

All in all I enjoy playing this game and it was worth 30 bucks for me, even in its current state. Of course I'd love those bugs to be fixed though.

you are the first person i have seen not have a problem with the price and state of the game as it was at release as well as in current state. something tells me that has to do with your moderator status on the forum and that having a major impact on your perception of a game that OBVIOUSLY was not ready for release.

I don't have a problem with it either. Sure, there's a lot of stuff I'd like added and fixed, but I've definitely gotten much more than $30 of enjoyment out of the game.

this is why we can't have nice things...

[insub]

i couldnt even play the game the first two weeks it came out the issues were so bad... yes they have cleaned it up some but that doesnt mean i feel any less like the game wasn't ready for release. if i bought it now and played it i would probably enjoy it more, i have talked to many many people who feel the same way. at least it is playable now. i even like it lol i just think they could have done a different price like a bunch of games for buying it in alpha or beta. to release it as a finished product was a mistake

[Eggenberg]

It's okay to refer to the Steam Forum.

I know, I was just being a smartarse