Hunt: Showdown’s next patch is available now to try on the test servers. The survival multiplayer game’s 1.8 update includes some much-needed fixes for performance, which has taken a hit since update 1.7 arrived in November, despite several hotfixes since then. The test servers also have two new weapons and weapon variants to try out, too – although these won’t be arriving with the 1.8 patch.
The first of the two new firearms is the Winfield 1893 Slate, a six-round pump-action shotgun that features a few improvements over the 1882 Spectre. It has a simpler mechanism, which results in smoother handling and the ability to top up ammo without opening the slide. However, it has a shorter barrel, resulting in greater recoil, higher spread, and lower average damage. You’ll want to be up close and personal with this boomstick if you want a one-hit kill.
The second new weapon is the Caldwell 92 New Army double-action revolver. It uses compact ammo and holds six rounds in the cylinder, which swings out to the left for faster reload times than the comparable Nagant M1895 Officer or Scottfield Model 3.
Those will make their way to the live servers sometime after the release of update 1.8, however. The patch itself, developer Crytek explains, is service-oriented, and is meant to address some of the persistent performance issues Hunt: Showdown has seen since the last big update.
Crytek says it has made several improvements on the server side to reduce processing overhead, such as reducing the amount of resources used by idle enemy AI. This means they may have slightly delayed reaction speeds, but the overall result should be better performance.
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The studio has also continued working on the way Hunt: Showdown interacts with the Steam API, reducing the number of calls the game makes in order to further improve performance.
In addition to several other fixes, Crytek has also made some adjustments to the textures for DLC hunter Cain. His ‘natural’ look was making him too difficult to detect against the muddy brown background of the bayou.
The Hunt: Showdown test server can be accessed through a separate installation in your Steam library.