Hello Bloodhunt Community!
Since the release of Early Access, we have been busy improving the game and we thank you for all the feedback that you have given us.
This update contains several Quality of Life (QoL) and balance changes that we hope will further improve the Bloodhunt experience for our players.
We also wanted to let you know that this update does not contain any optimisations for those players that are running into performance issues. We are giving that issue a high priority, but it is a bigger task that requires more time. So more on that in the future and, in the meantime, we thank you for your continued patience.
Without further ado, let’s look at what this update contains:
Features and Additions
Improved respawn/revive mechanics
We noticed that many players had a tough time understanding how the respawn mechanics work, so we took a bit of time to add a few things to it. We hope this will encourage more players to use it.
First, we have improved the feedback loop of when dead players are able to respawn in a group match by reminding eliminated players that they can still be respawned by teammates. So, make sure to tell your teammates about it!
Second, your teammate’s health bar will now also indicate if they can be revived. We hope that this makes it a lot clearer that the game has a revive function, and that it also reminds players of when it’s possible to make use of it.
When it comes to the respawning, we have added activation VFX once the respawn station has been used and improved the respawn station activation sounds.
Traversal – Climbing
There is now an option to not have to hold the jump button when climbing walls. To start climbing a wall, you just need to be in the air and hold down ‘forward’. This setting is active as default on controllers since it lets you look around more easily but can be activated with a mouse and keyboard setup as well. Let us know what you think!
Elysium changes
Keep your eyes open for changes in the Elysium! In addition to some new pieces that are worth taking a closer look at, the Kindred allies in Elysium are all working to make the building feel more like home. Custos has been tidying things up to make the place more accommodating, Maia is claiming a stage area to bring some energy into the Elysium, and Kirill is… Yeah, what is he doing? Looks like he’s planning something.
Also, the Nosferatu Primogen has arrived: Omnis. They are standing in the main hall. Perhaps they have some news about the situation?
Recent events in Prague have also made for some new talking points for Custos and the clan Primogens, so make sure you check in on them once in a while for more knowledge on the situation.
The Rudolfinum concert hall is now open!
While you’re fighting your way through Prague, you can now explore the Rudolfinum – a place of high culture. This building has functioned as a communal haven for clan Toreador but is now just as much of a site for battle and bloodshed as the rest of Prague.
The Journal
We added multiple new journal entries for your reading pleasure, but you will have to unlock most of them first!
We also made some improvements to the journal by reducing the delay when it comes to interacting with examinable items in the Elysium.
Improved dialogue transition
We created a new fade to black transition into dialogue with our primogens to allow the animations to be ready once the dialogue starts.
Performance indicators
We’ve added performance indicators that will appear if the game is running into unexpected problems. This will help you identify where the problem is, and helps us to better understand how we can help you, should you reach out to us for help with a video.
The performance indicators mean the following:
Low FPS – This means that you are having performance issues which are resulting in your computer being unable to reproduce the game images at the desired framerate.
Latency variation – This means that you are having difficulties with maintaining a steady ping. This could result in your enemies seemingly teleporting while in the game or otherwise.
Latency – This means that you are under the threshold of the accepted latency for playing Bloodhunt. The game may still work, but you may experience multiple side effects like your shots and hits not connecting properly or getting killed behind walls.
Server FPS – This means that the Bloodhunt server itself is unable to keep up with the desired amount of data that it needs to track per second.
Refresh rate – When this warning shows, you are not using the maximum refresh rate of your screen and thus not getting the best possible gameplay experience! Check your video settings and increase the refresh rate in the options menu in Bloodhunt to match that of your screen (applicable on screens that support refresh rates higher than 60 Hz)
Packet loss – This means that the data packets that are sent from the server to your game client or vice versa to keep track of everything that is going on in the game are getting lost on the way. Packet loss means that the server is unable to give your game client the full information on what is currently going on in Bloodhunt, and the game client will have to make some predictions, usually not in your favour.
Halloween quest!
We have added a special Halloween quest line which we hope you will enjoy!
Balance changes
We heard from quite a lot of players that the Nosferatu clan might be a little too powerful, and we were able confirm from our telemetry data that this indeed seemed to be the case. So we did some tweaks to better balance them out against the other clans.
Vampire clans & powers
Nosferatu
- Decreased the maximum speed during Vanish by 9.2%
- Reduced the duration of Vanish from 1.4 s to 1.25 s
Nosferatu: Saboteur
- Decreased the crouch time to trigger unseen passage from 3 s to 2 s.
Nosferatu: Prowler
- Cooldown for the Scouting Famulus power increased from 16 s to 22 s.
- The revealed status now only lasts 1 s from 5 s after leaving the area of effect of the Scouting Famulus power.
- Radius of Scouting Famulus decreased from 10 m to 9 m.
- Enemy Scouting Famulus are now shown with a red tint to make them a little easier to avoid. So keep your eyes peeled Kindred!
Toreador
Toreador: Siren
- Blinding Beauty screen effect now has a classic white flash bang effect appear which then gradually starts fading. This was always the intended behaviour for the power but unfortunately it didn’t work as intended due to a bug.
We also made some changes to the weapon balance to keep it more fun and interesting.
Here are the weapon changes for this update:
Ranged Weapons
Pump Shotgun
- Reload is now available sooner after firing.
Crossbow
- Headshot multiplier reduced from 2x to 1.75x.
The gas is already a good pay-off for hitting, but the headshots together with immediate damage from the gas left players too close to death even when armoured. - Gas damage has been reduced from 25/s to 16/s putting it on par with the Sewer bomb gas, damage wise.
- Initial area damage has been reduced from 20 to 4.
- Gas radius reduced slightly: 4.5 m to 4 m.
The crossbow gave the user way too much free damage (far more than we intended). By making changes to both initial damage and damage over time, we hope to vastly reduce its raw damage potential when not making direct hits, while still letting it hurt just enough to keep the enemy moving and to flush out people from cover.
Dual Crossbows
- Magazine size increased from 2 / 4 / 6 to 4 / 6 / 8.
- Explosion maximum damage reaches 2 m instead of 1 m, but still drops off after that. Max. range of explosion remains the same, but the damage should feel more consistent after this change.
Sniper Rifle
- Reload is now available sooner after firing a bullet.
Melee Weapons
General
- The size of melee weapon hitboxes has been notably increased, especially the width.
This change should make melee attacks hit when it feels like they should a bit more. But mostly it is the width of the hitboxes that has increased, to make attacks land more consistently when an enemy is below or above you on a slanted rooftop for example, or when they are jumping.
Entity
- We lowered the amount of Entity soldiers that spawn per location in group play.
Loot
- Entity crates no longer drop rare (blue) weapons (only Purple and Gold)
Visibility & Accessibility
- Clearer colours on outlines, especially in Heightened Senses and low-quality settings
- Increased legibility by changing the size of various texts
Bug Fixes
- Fixes an issue with the tutorial having a significantly slower fire rate for automatic weapons than in multiplayer
- Fixed an issue that could cause the player to be unable to open the Elysium menu when pressing escape after having opened the Battle Pass pop-up
- Fixed a bug that could cause ranged weapons to disappear when reloading
- The challenge that requires players to cause damage with Assault rifles no longer requires a purple Assault rifle
- Journal entries now unlock properly after interacting with the Primogens
- Swapping an LMG with an SMG no longer causes the weapons to teleport on the floor
- Improved the Diablerie animations to decrease the risk of getting stuck inside a wall if the animation was interrupted
- Fixed an issue with gamepads that was causing flickering or missing button prompts in the game menu and inventory
- Added some missing information in the journal regarding gold weapons
- Fixed the “Prague 2.0” outfit which was showing the incorrect item
- Improved the LODs for character models (Level of detail)
- Fixed a few areas where it was possible for players to go out of bounds
- Several crash fixes
Known issues
- In some cases, players can run into performance issues, even if they meet the requirements
- The game may not run if the user is running Comodo or Intego Antivirus software
- Facial hair may not render even though it has been equipped
- Its currently not possible to complete the “Place in the top X over several games” challenge
We hope you will like these improvements, and as always, see you at dusk!
Sharkmob Team
