Update 1.4.4

* Variant of the shortened Winfield Vandal.
* The knife attached to its barrel can be used for both heavy and light melee attacks.

### New Legendary Weapons

**Martini Henry Marksman "Oberon's Hound"**

* Martini-Henry IC1 Marksman

**Description:** *"Named for a most fearsome and relentless hunter of the wood, in a bygone time this rifle won its renown taking down the prey etched on its receiver: egret, doe, buck, and bear. Now, this Martini-Henry IC1 Marksman sights itself on bigger, deadlier prizes. "*

**Martini Henry Deadeye “Sacrosanct”**

* Martini-Henry IC1 Deadeye

**Description:** *"Sanctified in something beyond mortal understanding; the work of this Martini-Henry Deadeye is hallowed. Unfortunates who find themselves sighted in the purview of the Sacrosanct will face their sins, all too soon."*

**Springfield Marksman “Archangel**

* Springfield 1886 Marksman

D**escription:** *"In Christian scripture, archangels led the celestial host against the forces of darkness. In the bayou, this Springfield 1866 Marksman is used to the same purpose: to drive the creeping forces of darkness out of the bayou and return the region to the divine light."*

**Nagant M1895 Precision "Polar Star"**

* Nagant M1895 Precision

**Description:** *"Fyodor Brusilov was gifted this Nagant M1895 Precision to commemorate his first voyage as captain of The Polar Star. The ship never reached its final port of call, and all hands were declared lost at sea - until this pistol turned up in the bayou."*

## General Updates

### Audio

* Dead hunters no longer play the "healed" sound effect when they stop burning.

### Gunplay

#### Sprinting

* Refactored controls to allow more fluid transitions between equipment actions and sprinting.
* Players are now able to sprint as soon as the aim input is lifted, even if a weapon is technically still in the firing process and applying recoil.
	+ Previously the delay before players could sprint after firing a shot could only be circumvented by quickly switching equipment. This is no longer needed.

* Applies to Hunter and Gunslinger controls schemes and all combinations of Aim Down Sights or Sprint set to toggle or hold.

#### Shooting

* It is no longer possible to interrupt the firing process right after a shot, while it is still applying recoil.
* Switching to other equipment is queued and executed right afterward.
* Entering Dark Sight now follows the same rules as switching equipment in order to prevent recoil cancelling.

#### Aiming

* Pistols that enter the Aim Down Sight state after a weapon switch have slightly increased sway, fading out over a short period of time.

**Developer Notes:**
*As some of you probably noticed already at this point, we have been looking into the "Quick Swap Mechanic" which became an integral part of the game for some players and has been much discussed in the community lately. We acknowledge that, which is why it will stay in the game. However - like all other mechanics in the game - it must also subject to balancing changes. The changes we made are meant to solve multiple issues:*

Players often found themselves unable to start sprinting instantly after a shot was fired because the weapon was technically still aiming until all recoil was applied and therefore locking movement speed. We reworked parts of the system to ensure more player agency over their hunters' mobility without the need for such workarounds. Overall the controls should feel a lot smoother and more responsive that way.

When we introduced the faster weapon swapping during Early Access, it was to try to remove some clunkiness from the controls. However - unintended by us - this change also gave rise to the dominant strategy to quickly swap to your second weapon after a shot and attempt to score a follow-up hit to finish your target off. While being a skill move, of course, it shifted the power of certain weapons, negating their built-in disadvantages like being a single-shot weapon too much. This strategy was further amplified around the 1.0 full release, where we reduced weapon sway across the board to make the game more accessible for newer players. Some players perfected this quick swap meta to the point that it started feeling abusive and "gamey" in a game that tries to use the rough mechanics and shortcomings of the weapons in a way to balance them against each other.

With these changes, we want to take one step back and reorder this part of the game a bit. Quick swap is meant to stay, but becomes a tad more difficult to pull off - hopefully making it less of a dominant strategy by veteran players and opening up the arsenal more to other options. Players will at least have to suffer the full recoil of the shot before they can change weapons, but on the other hand, they gain a lot of mobility out of the box.

**Frag Bomb**

* Adjusted damage falloff resulting in higher chances of survival towards the range limit.
* Shrapnels that reach players behind full cover only apply Intense Bleeding and no actual health damage.

**Weapon Changes**

* Slightly increased the rate of fire for the LeMat Mark II revolver.
	+ It shoots a little bit slower than the Caldwell Conversion with regular fire.
	+ The fanning speed is comparable to the Caldwell Pax now.

* Slightly reduced the rate of fire for the Nitro Express Rifle.
	+ It is a bit slower now in firing the second barrel right after the first, in order to help with animation blending and the quick swap smoothing mentioned above.

### Hunter

**New Trait: Necromancer**
*"Using Dark Sight revive a downed partner from a distance, though at the cost of a small amount of health."*

* Available at Rank 69.
* Costs 4 Upgrade points.
* Used similarly to the Serpent trait (25m range, 10s channel time).
* User loses 2.5 health per second during channeling.
* Starting channeling will NOT stop the burning state of the corpse-like a manual revive does.

**Developer Notes:**
We like what the Serpent trait brought to the game. It enables players to turn a tricky situation around, and it provokes new tactical decisions even when no one brought it into the match. In a similar fashion, "Necromancer" should make it more difficult to just wait an engagement out for teams that have the advantage anyway. It will require a better understanding of sightlines, positioning, and potential crossing points from all players involved. To keep the feeling of vulnerability during and after a revive we added the cost of health so that commitment is still key.

**New Trait: Whispersmith**
*"Reduces noise when selecting equipment."*

* Available at Rank 32.
* Costs 2 Upgrade points.

### Matchmaking

* Reduced the maximum matchmaking time for Bounty Hunt matches to 90 seconds
* New player's skill level is now adjusted to allow them an easier introduction to Hunt. It remains artificially lower until the end of the Trainee mode.

### Bounty Hunt

#### Weapon Loot

* There is a chance for weapons to be found in bounty hunt missions now.
* Mostly but not exclusively low tier weapons (Unlock levels are generally below rank 10)
* All weapon categories (close to long-range) are represented.
* Weapons looted are marked as Contrabands.

**Developer Notes:**
*We like that players can commit to highly effective loadouts before a mission. However, we also understand that looting weapons from other hunters can sometimes enable players to adapt to new circumstances and open up new immediate strategies. With this change, we want to introduce more situations for players to make smart decisions.*

### Quickplay

#### Expanded starting equipment for Quickplay

**Global Changes**

* Added a first aid kit to every Quickplay recruit.
* Removed First Aid kits from the spawn lists (they can’t be found anymore in Quickplay).

**Random Class**

* Added the Specter Compact as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Nagant M1895 Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Caldwell Conversion Pistol Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Nagant M1895 Silencer Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.

**Medium Range Class**

* Added the Nagant M1895 Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Caldwell Conversion Pistol Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Nagant M1895 Silencer Dual Wield as possible starter equipment.

**Short Range Class**

* Added the LeMat Mark II as possible starter equipment.
* Added the Specter Compact as possible starter equipment.

### Training

* Optimized loading screen hints to better support new players with best practices and advice.
* Slightly adjusted equipment and outfits of the first free Hunters a new player can choose from.

**Training Boss replaced with Butcher**

* Players will now face the Butcher instead of the Spider in the training maps.
	+ Basic: 25% health
	+ Advanced: 50% health
	+ Professional: Normal health.

**Developers notes:**
*We realized that for newer players, facing off against the Spider, an extremely mobile opponent while learning the controls and gameplay ended up being too frustrating as their first experience with the game.*

The Butcher will allow players to pick up the basics of fighting bosses (making use of weapons scattered around, frenzy mode, dangerously strong attacks to dodge, etc.) while being much easier to hit, allowing them to get used to the combat and still feel the satisfaction of taking down a boss.

We hope that this, amongst the other changes we have been working on, will help to improve the overall onboarding experience!

### Leaderboard

* Player will be shown on the leaderboard only if they meet all those conditions:
	+ Logged in within the last 30 days
	+ Have at least 100 kill in Quickplay or 100 Kill or Assist in Bounty Hunt
	+ Didn't opt out from showing their stats publicly
	+ Not banned
	+ Played at least 50 hours

### Store

* Added Springfield Marksman “Archangel” for 400 Bloodbonds.
* Added Martini-Henry Deadeye “Sacrosanct” for 600 Bloodbonds.
* Added Martini-Henry Marksman “Oberon's Hound” for 600 Bloodbonds.
* Added Nagant Precision “Polar Star” for 300 Bloodbonds.

### Miscellaneous

**Double of Nothing DLC**
*The weapons in the "Double or Nothing" DLC have been split up. It is now possible to equip each pistol on its own, and mix and match with others of their type. They will still be shown as a unique weapon when the pair is equipped.*

## Bug Fixes

* Fixed a bug where the radius of the poison bomb was displayed as 8m instead of 3m.
* Fixed an issue where throwing knives would remain in the air after detonating a poison barrel.
* Fixed an issue where players could prematurely cancel the reload of the Mosin-Nagant M1891 Avtomat, shortening its reload animation.
* Fixed an issue where the Immolator was wrongly playing 'bump into something' animation on dead AI.
* Fixed an issue where Meatheads with anchors didn't spawn outside of the tutorial.
* Fixed an issue where finger when using a vitality shot moved a bit faster than the syringe got pressed in third person.
* Fixed an issue where Frag Bombs and Big dynamite bundles used/had wrong melee animations.
* Fixed an issue where hand for activation of Sticky bomb was too far away from fuse activation in third person.
* Fixed an issue where light melee attacks with the hive bomb overstretched the arm for one frame in third person.
* Fixed an issue where the wrong Hunter was displayed for Teammates in the Lobby.
* Fixed an issue where the Leaderboard tab was completely empty.
* Fixed an issue where weapon filters did not show up as intended.
* Fixed an issue where using a weak stamina shot had the hand too far away from the syringe and the syringe when injecting was too far away from the arm in third person.
* Fixed an issue where changing from world axe to a lot of equipment stretched arms.
* Fixed an issue where changing from world hammer to some equipment had weird animations.
* Fixed an issue where Bornheim pull away and out animations had a weird movement on the left hand in first person.
* Fixed an issue where Bread piles had the wrong material.
* Fixed an issue where any kind of bullet could penetrate concertina wire.
* Fixed an issue where Player did not get attacked by the boss at a specific spot in the lair towards Scupper Lake.
* Fixed an issue where Choke bomb instantly exploded lit barrel when it went off.
* Fixed an issue where Specific oil puddles did not connect to Yellow Barrels.
* Fixed an issue where the Muzzle Flash for the Vandal variant was too far away.
* Fixed an issue where when queuing in a team the Training and Contract tab could still be selected.
* Fixed an issue where when queuing for QP, the other tabs could still be selected.
* Fixed an issue where the previous tab's shortcuts were displayed on the Leaderboard if statistics were hidden.
* Fixed an issue where text was overlapping assigned space in the report player screen.
* Fixed an issue where the RT controller Button in the progress subtabs line was not placed correctly.
* Fixed an issue where long user name and KDA ratios were overlapping in the Player profile.
* Fixed an issue where Info pop ups were missing when starting with new user except for QP and Trainee Mode.
* Fixed an issue where the Clean button was still visible when filters aren't matching an item.
* Fixed an issue where Player was able to get special ammo types out of ammo boxes ( Crossbow ).
* Fixed an issue where the wrong Bloodline message / popup was displayed on new Bloodline when going from trials to trial rewards,
* Fixed an issue where Wooden bridges had low view distance.
* Fixed an issue where Player couldn't aim after picking up a gun and the crosshair was very big.
* Fixed an issue where having toggle for aim and sprint in gunslinger scheme delayed the start of sprinting.
* Fixed an issue where searching for 'Steady Hand' did not display the Vandal Deadeye.
* Fixed an issue where strong shadow flickered on Hunters and objects in the menu and in-game.
* Fixed an issue where a downed Hunter sometimes didn't get set on fire even tho it looked like he is completely in the flames.
* Fixed an issue where frozen/ crashed / disconnected players kept walking into the last known input direction and never stop.
* Fixed an issue where Player could get semi stuck behind generator.
* Fixed an issue where Player could get stuck between a haybale and the roof.

## Known Issues

* For new users the tutorial might get skipped, and the lobby UI doesn't load properly when starting

the game with a bad internet connection.

* New user pop ups (when visiting tabs for the first time) might appear again.
* Players are sometimes experiencing high ping / high latency issues (continuous increase, ping spikes).
* Players might still be burning/poisoned after respawning during Trials or the Tutorial.
* Poison effect from a Hive or the Spider can be stuck on player.
* Sometimes people randomly un-ADS from their weapons.
* Clients might stutter during gameplay (NVIDIA).
* Hit registration of server and client might differ.
* Players can experience desync between client and server (walking on edges / slopes).
* Mouse cursor might be visible in-game.
* Statistics page and last match screen gets only updated after a Tab switch when visiting it after a mission.
* New pop up prompts / dialogues (e.g. leave mission, spending BBs, ...) might get blocked from being opened.
* Inactive ammo-type of the LeMat cannot be looted and is not calculated in the spare ammo pool.
* Controller cursor movement is constantly slowing down even when not close to buttons.
* It can happen that teammates footsteps are very quiet.
* Overlay window of Book of Weapons may become unresponsive after claiming a reward.
* When a player approaches a Weapon/Tool crate in QP while bleeding/burning the exchange UI icon stays with him until he heals himself.
* Using dark sight results in worse shadows quality.
* Player can have 0 health chunks and still be alive.
* Weapon parts might not get rendered.
* Players can accidentally shoot twice with some weapons.
* Butcher can leave the various boss rooms through slide doors.
* Banishement and token UI can display the wrong status.
* Player looses control over the game when he uses Alt-Tab during Darksight with a non native resolution.
* AI is able to attack players during "waiting for players" due to feature not working.
* Stalls may happen on banishment.
* Small shadows on Legendary Hunter Mountain Man are in constant motion in the lobby.
* Sometimes not all UI elements can stream in when loading into a match.
* Player unable to loot weapons, 'Ammo Full' displayed on pressing F
* Shadow for weapons and Hunters missing on the death screen.
* Initial training screen got a useless B/X and a missing X/square prompt.
* Bag of The Arcane Archaeologist can clip into arm with specific weapons.
* Player melees when right and left clicking during the revolver spin animation.
* Kills made by a fully dead hunter ( but still in game ) are not awarded to the player.
* No pop up for overnight claimed challenges.
* Sometimes when shooting, the player starts meeleing instead.
* Leaderboard might take very long to update when switching from 'World' to 'Friends'.
* After assigning the "F" key to another function, it can't be reassigned to its two original functions
* It can happen that player won't start with fully HP into a replayed Trial.
* If a user is searching for a game in QP and maintenance starts he doesn't get kicked out.
* Sometimes Teammates don't have shadows.
* Player animation isn't reset properly on replay while holding a world item.
* Player can keep and win soul survivor even though he died in Quickplay (trading kills with wellspring carrier).
* Player is unable to fire when fast switching from an iron sight shot to fanning.
* Used up tools get replaced when the player picks up a new tool.
* Butcher can sometimes be observed walking sideways or backwards.
* Player can get three loots with Packmule Trait when looting a dead players.
* Player may lose control over character tabbing out and in again.
* Second equipped dual wield weapon cannot be cleaned.
* AI is able to block headshots with their bodies.
* Bornheim extended sometimes doesn't reload fully (one bullet doesn't get reloaded).
* Player can create immortal AI.
* Player can sometimes still get revived if teammate dies during revive process.
* Running while the map is open bends the player model.
* Player leaves crouch unintentionally on certain key combinations.
* Sometimes after picking up a gun or changing fire mode the player can't aim down sight.