Let's sum up 2017!

[AmbushPredator]

Highs for 2017:

New animals during the year - bobcat (a long awaited species), feral goat & dall sheep. And giving bears a much needed makeover.
A new reserve with brilliantly-designed new species - they really move well, and their 'resting/alerted' mannerisms make them come alive like no other!
New functionality - bait site management, loadouts and trophy lodges. Of these all, I'd say the loadouts are far & away the best.

Lows for 2017:

There were a few server problems, but as an occasional hunter, I didn't really get too much affected by these. They must have been a real pain for those who do competitions, though.
No arid reserve, no Africa

The Better Year?

This year, without a doubt!

Hopes for 2018:

Africa (but I still think CotW will do it first..) or that desert/scrub bush reserve I just know the devs are secretly working on...
More small game - I don't really go in for them much myself, but I know others really love this type of hunting.
A makeover for existing deer species, to give them the new mannerisms of the sambhar & rusa. And an overhaul for turkeys!


A big thank you to all the devs and staff at EW, you make this game what it is - the best hunting simulation I've ever played. Have a great break, you really deserve it! Here's to greater things!

[Bong_Boy]

Highs for 2017:

1. I love the feral goats!

2. Trophy lodges are great

3. I enjoy the new reserve

4. Antler sheds


Lows for 2017:

1.No Africa reserve

2. Adam leaving the team he was the best support I have ever had in a game!

Hopes for 2018:

1. A NEW muzzleloader

2. A redo of Turkeys

3. More small game

4. Africa reserve

5. Changing the polar and grizzly bears behaviour to how they used to be.

What year is better?

I joined last November but just recently got involved in the fourms. So I would have to say 2017

[Bethany]

1) What were your three highs in 2017?

#1 Joining the amazing theHunter Classic team.
#2 Harvesting my first kill in the game.
#3 Seeing how excited the team were to be able to release a new reserve - Piccabeen Bay!


2) What were your three lows in 2017?

#1 Putting in 110% but not always having the time we needed to do everything we wanted.
#2 It was sad to see some fantastic team members moving on.


3) Which year was better in theHunter, in your opinion, 2017 or 2016?

2017. We had lots of exciting releases this year and some great new members join the team.


4) What are your main two hopes for theHunter for 2018?

That we will continue to do more great releases for theHunter Classic, and continue to build a wonderful community here and in the game.

Looking forward to 2018!

[InstinctiveArcher]

Three Highs:
1. Trophy Lodges. These are great!
2. Feral Goats. I love the diversity.
3. Piccabeen Bay. Cool species and beautiful landscape.

Three Lows:
1. Lots of great people leaving the EW team.

2016 or 2017?
As great as this year was, I have to go with 2016. Timbergold Trails was and is super awesome.

Hopes for 2018?
1. African reserve
2. More bows
3. Improved animal AI.

[LEFLOR]

(all that follows is not ranked in order of priority)

Hights :
- Trophy lodge
- All news species (specially Bobcat)
- Antlers collectable

Lows :
- For events that weapons or accessories are imposed without being put on sale that day ...
- Tripod rest, too heavy, too long to install, unusable with a crossbow
- Lots of great people leaving the EW team.

2016 or 2017? I started playing in February 2017, I can’t compare

Hopes for 2018 : that 2018 is the continuity of 2017, the staff is going in the right direction
- Reskin turkey, feral hog and wild boar (they deserve it)
- Guest in a multi players game use their own equipment (TS…)
- Pointing dogs and driven hunting dogs (with a functioning like IRL)

[atc86]

Highs :

1) As a returning player from '14 there was a lot of new content for me to engage with, Trophy lodges, new reserves, and new species for me to hunt.
2) A community that is still active and as helpful as when I first joined.
3) The xmas helper streams. I thought this was a really good idea for people that didn't have the required gear to complete the missions. Also the members of the community that also helped others with completing these missions.

Lows:

1) Still no public API we can use to gather stats in a more efficient way than we can see on the website.
2) Server issues
3) some great people that left EW

Hopes for 2018:

1) API!!!
2) When I first returned I noticed how much the EHR map had expanded and wondered if one day this would be a fully open map that would allow us to freely travel between the reserves. In 2018 I'd like to see the start of this take place although I doubt it will happen due to engine limitations.
3) re work of WRR. We still have animals falling through the ice and the tracking domes are terrible on this map during the bright sun even with sunglasses.

[Granti]

1) What were your three highs in 2017?
- the constant improval of the game (maps, weapons, animals, etc).


2) What were your three lows in 2017?
- hunter score 2.0 - changes made zero improvement in this matter; in fact some nice achievments in the past are now just cosmetical. this was a lose/lose thing for both ew and the players. hope it get changed soon.

- the sometimes not proffesional handled frontend; like mixup in tournaments, sales, weaponspecifications and so on (in a way it has its own charme)

- the immense time it takes to implement tournaments with the new species

3) Which year was better in theHunter, in your opinion, 2017 or 2016? still 2017 cause the speed in updating the game is just great

4) What are your main two hopes for theHunter for 2018? continued updates of species, maps; tournaments with new species and the biggest hope of all; update of the launcher with a more userfriendly competition-site (maybe even a calendar), personal bests, huntermate 2.0, update for dogs (multi-retrieving)

[Leventthyen]

1) What were your three highs in 2017? (In case you have more, pick your favourite ones)

I just renewed my membership after more than a year and did not get my chance at Timbergold. So even though it came out in 2016. I'm back again and Timbergold is of course my high.
Lodges.

2) What were your three lows in 2017? (Same here - pick three biggest disappointments for you personally)

Although I have been playing since 2012, I didn't have much experience yet for 2017. But a low that I have noticed is the Grizzly behavior.

3) Which year was better in theHunter, in your opinion, 2017 or 2016? Hint: you can check the same thread for 2016 here.

I played only for the first 4 months of 2016 but I enjoyed my last weeks more now in 2017 now than in 2016.

4) What are your main two hopes for theHunter for 2018?

I like to see added variety to competitions. We generally tend to stay to a few reserves, so to make use for other reserves and help us not to forget them, some competitions that would take place in one reserve only. For example "Harvest the highest scoring Whitetail in Rougarou Bayou".
Also competitions added for the new species including the Polar bear.

Because there are so many famous and cool animals, I would say an Africa themed reserve should be a must and a great challenge for the dev team. I can add a suggestion for this :
Not develop an African themed reserve as large as the latest reserves, but...create an African continent, create a smaller reserve in the continent and add 3 animals for example Elephant, hyena, antelope. In my opinion, this will leave less stress on the team and help develop the next African small reserve with 3 more animals. I think I remember Rougarou having only 3 animals once. Since there are already plenty of forest themed reserves, African reserves can be the priority from now on as there is so much potential.

[HooCairs]

A happy New Year everyone! Some posts from this topic in my video.

[Ravenousfox]

I'm just going to answer number 4. here and say a FoV slider please.