The Future of Hunting Unlimited

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The Hand
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The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#1 Post by The Hand » 21 Mar 2022 19:07

Alright, i am gonna have to start it this way: SCS probably has no plans for Hunting Unlimited. Absolutely none. But there is a possibility that we do get more content for this obscure and old franchise, in the form of mods.

NmanMETA and EibeAxxt have already tried to mod this franchise, yet with decent success. NmanMETA modded his own base.scs just to see what you can and cant modify, EibeAxxt helped out NmanMETA by sending him a link for 3D Landscape For Everyone, yet that didnt work.

I am worried about the future of HU because i play it so much, and other people do aswell. I will have to admit though, it is getting boring, playing the same missions over and over and over....

But at least its something to kill time with. Its fun for me to try to beat my score again and again because of the dopamine hit that i get when i find a better way to do a mission.

Anyways, until the period of modding, i will be away, for a long time.
You can expect to see me in months.

cheers.
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#2 Post by EibeAxxt » 21 Mar 2022 21:59

I can understand your worries. What i can say is the fact that this game was made up until the last game. When the last game sold and got rated TERRIBLY, they basically lost it at that point. Using the waybackmachine.org you can see that the page for tournaments was booming (hu2010) and people really played it. I know if they open their domain for the game's page again will cost them money, but it would be nice from them. Contact from them doesn't exist. I messaged them last year and i still didn't get a response. Our attempts to mod this game are futile and although the progress is small, we should be able to eventually mod something. I have a mega project i was working a few months ago about a complete review of the entire base.scs file. I didn't finish it because i accidentally deleted 80% of my work... but i think when i have time i will finish it.

You shouldn't be worried about the game's future because we'll find a solution. Either we will or someone else will :D
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#3 Post by NmanMETA » 21 Mar 2022 22:31

That's not really news to anybody, I mean, SCS last touched this series over 12 years ago, ARB made 2011 and since then it's been radio silence on anything Hunting Unlimited.

I am in the process of getting housing for college, and I am going to be moving this August, even if I set aside every inch of free time I have for the next 3-5 months modding this game, it's very unlikely I get anything of substance done in terms of a complete mod.

The biggest factor other than time is the fact that I'm the definition of an amateur modder, to put it bluntly, I barely even know what I'm doing (no matter how much it may seem like I do), everything I've managed to do to this point has been me figuring out how basic XML code works and the like, or using software that I'm pretty sure hasn't been available for 11 or 12 years publicly by this point. As with 3D Landscape For Everyone, I'm giving up on maps for now, just because of the LND format, I'll pick up on that another time.

The reason my initial goal was to add animals to the game was because my end goal was to make a gigantic mission pack with around 18-20 tiers, and I wanted to be able to do so with a wider variety of animals and, if possible, maps to work with. However, the animals are giving me way more trouble than I bargained for, and I'm not even sure that custom maps are even a possibility right now without literally reverse engineering them, these three things in conjunction with each other are making this process very slow, and time/effort consuming, time that is going to be taken up by both school and work.

I promised that I will finish this mod at some point, and I will, I just can't say that it's going to be anytime soon, I am sorry. HU Corner's facebook page has download links to all of their modpacks, to my knowledge there's not any missions, but there's tons of new weapons and items to play around with, they've done a lot of really good work over there, if that may tide you over in the mean time. Otherwise, you're probably going to be waiting a while for large scale mods; my overall goal is to have a custom animal load into the game functionally by the end of 2022, I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's unfortunately where I'm at currently.

I'm not telling you to lose hope, I *love* this series and as I've stated previously, will do everything I can to keep it alive in the form of modding, but it will probably take a while to get something super deep out there, as I am only one person, and EibeAxxt is only one person, and I get the sense he too has more on his plate than making a mod for a game that's going to be 13 years old this September. On the other hand, I might hit a breakthrough tomorrow and have a complete mod out by July, anything could happen right now, I'm just going to ask you to please keep expectations in check for now.

I also apologize in advance if this comes off as aggressive anywhere, I'm just a little frustrated is all.
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#4 Post by NmanMETA » 21 Mar 2022 22:41

EibeAxxt wrote: 21 Mar 2022 21:59 I can understand your worries. What i can say is the fact that this game was made up until the last game. When the last game sold and got rated TERRIBLY, they basically lost it at that point.
What makes me saddest about 2011 is that SCS didn't even make that game, my best guess is that SCS probably told THQ they were shifting focus onto their trucking games, so THQ took the rights and sold it to ARB Studios. The game was structured terribly and was probably the worst in the series, though, that's what they get for entrusting it to a mobile developer who has yet to publish anything to the app store or Google Play since 2012 or 2013- bad move.

It also doesn't help that THQ went bankrupt a couple years later, most of their assets and studios were pounced on by bigger companies, I think even Sega was in on it. Nordic bought up brand rights, hence, now they're "THQ Nordic" but they're only THQ in name, the Hunting Unlimited series has been up for grabs for a decade. SCS has yet to make a move, and neither has anybody else, I feel like the effort it would take for them to sell a game like HU to a modern PC audience would require stepping up the graphics in a way that would take a lot of attention away from ATS and ETS2, and I don't see them doing it (at least, not in the next couple years).

Now, if this forum miraculously gains a lot of traction or they were to check the steam workshop every now and then, I think maybe there's a blizzard's chance in hell they give Hunting Unlimited one more shot some day. If I can make almost functional mods with a diet consisting of 50% caffeine, I'm sure SCS can make a decent hunting game again. Or at the very least, outdo ARB lol
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#5 Post by Madkine » 22 Mar 2022 00:57

I'm assuming more modern hunting simulators don't offer some features that these older games did?
Or is there another reason you prefer to play these old ones?

*I've been watching these conversations for a while and am curious.
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#6 Post by EibeAxxt » 22 Mar 2022 17:13

Madkine wrote: 22 Mar 2022 00:57 I'm assuming more modern hunting simulators don't offer some features that these older games did?
Or is there another reason you prefer to play these old ones?

*I've been watching these conversations for a while and am curious.
There are a few reasons why we play these games:
1. What you pay is what you get. Take for example "The Hunter", which is a free to play game. It has mixed reviews not because the game is poorly optimized, but it's because most animal and guns need to be bought. Like, with real money bought. This is why exactly the HU series succeeded. No DLC's, in older games minigames, everything unlocked, missions and custom missions, even back in the day tournaments with clans and rankings! I think this explains why we play this game the most. Also, this is one the biggest reasons why we want to mod this game.
2. Nostalgia. Most people who now post here remember playing these games when they were young. Nothing really to explain here but seeing that this site has a forum for Hunting Unlimited is pretty dope.

These are some of the reasons i can say why we still play it, however if we do manage to mod this game, this game could be popular again and that's pretty much our goal. (more modders, bigger community, tournaments even?!)
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#7 Post by NmanMETA » 22 Mar 2022 21:52

Madkine wrote: 22 Mar 2022 00:57 I'm assuming more modern hunting simulators don't offer some features that these older games did?
Or is there another reason you prefer to play these old ones?

*I've been watching these conversations for a while and am curious.
My main reasons are in nostalgia first and foremost, but on a similar level, I generally prefer games that allow for interpreting a situation for yourself in-game. Tactically speaking, you can approach missions in this game many different ways, where if you take most of the more modern hunting games, that doesn't really exist. As EibeAxxt, there's a lot of content that's locked behind paywalls and I really don't like that, when this game has sat right under peoples' noses for years and has every basic need a hunting game should have. There's no pay walls, there's no forced progression (you don't have to wait until you pass tier X with at least score X to unlock X animal), you can install the game, and jump right into your first hunt.

It's a playground in terms of hunting, yeah it's not the most inch-for-inch replication of what actual hunting is like, there's a lot of absurdities and quirks within the game, wolves and turkeys in particular are scaled weirdly, but those are minor gripes in the grand scheme. It's a very open game, the missions are simple but require skilled play and actual, real thought to accomplish, the game doesn't take constant cheap shots, they don't entirely operate on jumpscare value. As a result, it's not a game of "what's coming to kill me this time", the gameplay is varied and that's more than what can be said for a lot of modern hunting games. I'd go as far as to say it's one of the best balances between simulation and arcade gameplay the genre has seen in years, possibly EVER.

And it was overall just a really good formula, one that if they expanded upon it further into Gen 7 and 8 styles it could easily have competed, which is why it kind of irks me that they gave up on it, and why I want to help keep it going even if I make a mod that falls on deaf ears- better than just letting it go. What's made it even worse is if I've gotten this far, imagine how far THEY could have gotten being that they, y'know, made the game. So, in summation, I'm simply taking it into my own hands, since that Pavel dude doesn't seem too interested lol
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#8 Post by Madkine » 23 Mar 2022 02:11

Thanks for the responses.
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#9 Post by Tunahan_cevik41 » 04 May 2022 13:49

I know scs software hasn't been interested in hunting unlimited for a long time, but I wish they hadn't ended the series.
I love hunting unlimited, I still have 2 games installed on my computer.
I was very sad that the series ended.
If euro truck continued to develop hunting unlimited with the technology they developed, it could be the most played hunting game in the world :(
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Re: The Future of Hunting Unlimited

#10 Post by NmanMETA » 18 May 2022 08:19

Tunahan_cevik41 wrote: 04 May 2022 13:49 I know scs software hasn't been interested in hunting unlimited for a long time, but I wish they hadn't ended the series.
I love hunting unlimited, I still have 2 games installed on my computer.
I was very sad that the series ended.
If euro truck continued to develop hunting unlimited with the technology they developed, it could be the most played hunting game in the world :(
That's just business unfortunately, I look at the context and can absolutely see why they made the decision. By 2009, the year 2010 came out, these games were graphically about on par with a Gen 6 console like the GameCube or PS2, Xbox, the sad reality is, that was deep enough into the lifecycle of the Xbox 360 and PS3, that players from those consoles at large would rather have better graphics in a game that's *almost* as good. It doesn't make as much sense in hindsight now, but keep in mind, this was a PC exclusive series when, at the time, the steep majority of gamers were on consoles.

Making a game for an already limited demographic, on a platform people simply were steering away from at the time anyway just wouldn't have been smart on a business front. In terms of game depth, SCS only took HU as far as they were willing, decided the content present in 2010 was enough, and then the rights (in some way or another) went to ARB Studios, which in retrospect, was probably their only real "mistake".

ARB was a primarily mobile developer, and if you play Hunting Unlimited 2011, the evidence of it really shows, the menusystem and ui in general just *reeks* of that early-era mobile game style, in all honesty, I'm not convinced they didn't want to make it into an iPod Touch game at the time, it had that kind of setup. And it never really felt right to me on PC, people say the game itself is what killed the series, but I'm further on the believe it was ARB Studios that should be the whipping boy for HU's sad demise.

Because yes, the series ended after 2011, but what should shock nobody is that ARB barely even lasted any longer than the series itself, there's not actually an awful lot of info on ARB, they're like Schrodinger's Dev Team, but from what I could gather, it was a very small team, and they pumped out a lot of internet Flash games before shifting to the mobile scene, and there's little evidence of their footprint from after 2012, such a weird... weird choice. And I'm not sure I place more responsibility on SCS for simply giving up on the series, or THQ for trusting such a low-cred developing team for a game they must have perceived as "expendable".

My bet would be on the latter, simply because of THQ's nature, they remind me almost of Alphadream or Ubisoft, a team with serious credit and notoriety but for every good, home-run decision they made, they had 3 baffling ones in the clip, ready to fire out. And it shows in that not even 3 years later, THQ themselves closed their doors and their studios were gobbled up by Sega and Wayforward. Now *technically* THQ does still exist as THQ Nordic but that doesn't go much further than the branding, most of what WAS THQ was laid off, or again, dispersed between the highest bidders. All of that to say, I'm not even sure who (if anybody) quote unquote "owns" the rights to Hunting Unlimited.

That said, I do think SCS could make something *amazing* given today's limits, but I'm discovering part of why *I* want to mod and make content for this game is to refresh what is old and more accessible, and potentially show SCS that there is a fanbase for these games that has been *dying* for a serious contender to Cabela's and such in a modern-day market. I'm not necessarily counting on that playing out, but I feel like they left so much untapped potential within these games, and SCS has always been a pretty open company (part of why I love them), if they see that there is a push to get these games back, I could see them answering the call in some capacity. Even if they remastered 2010 and made a console adaptation with nicer models/textures and a UI makeover, no it wouldn't be the continuation of my dreams, but it'd be *something* to say "we hear you guys, keep chugging away".

That's a very idealist take, I understand the implications of remastering a 13 year old game made with Windows Vista and 7 in mind for Gen 8 and 9 consoles, I don't *expect* that to happen in exact detail, what I mean overall is, I'm going to find a way to make the community show up by any means. I'll try modding, I'll enlist help in making something akin to HU Corner's old website, it's a long term goal of mine to resurrect tournament functionality, but my overall idea is to get a large waft of this community back together, in one place, and maybe have SCS hear us and bare minimum, acknowledge these games. I think given what they've accomplished with, essentially, creating "the" definitive trucking simulator, they could throw a strong enough hat back into the hunting ring, and seriously raise the bar for the games.

Either that or I've been spending way too much time with this game. Either or.
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