Developer Insight- Upcoming UI Improvements
Hunters,
Thank you all for your feedback since the release of Hunt: Showdown 1896, especially regarding the UI changes. Your insights have been invaluable. We recognize that some of our recent redesigns fell short of delivering the functionality and usability you came to expect.
Many of the changes were initially aimed at improving the console player experience, but we understand now that some of the new screens sacrificed functionality that was key to the PC experience.
Today, we’re going to discuss the screens we are prioritizing to adjust throughout the year: Loadouts, Team Details, Post-Mission Summary, and the Pause Menu.
Loadouts Redesign
The loadout screen is critical for quickly equipping favorite setups, but the current design isn’t making this process intuitive. Here’s how we’re improving it:
- Custom loadouts will return to a vertical list format, so we can display 10 custom loadouts at once.
- Both custom loadouts and Hunter loadouts will now display side-by-side to reduce memory strain.
- Actions for overwriting and selecting loadouts will be clearer.
- The Gear screen will display the name of the loadout being edited to reduce confusion when stepping away from the game.
- A “Loadouts” tab is being added to the top navigation for quicker access, especially the lobby.
Team Details
The current Team Details screen presents a lot of icons and colors while only showing a few teams at once. Our redesign aims to simplify and enhance this experience via the improvements below:
- The number of teams displayed will increase.
- A three-color icon system will clarify actions:
- Gold represents your actions.
- Blue represents your teammates’ actions.
- Red represents enemy actions.
This color-based icon system aims to make actions and interactions clearer and more consistent. - Gold represents your actions.
- Numbers and tooltips will now display for items with multiple instances, reducing the need to decipher multiple icons.
- The Legend has been moved to the actions menu, allowing more of the screen to remain visible in the background. It’s now more compact, with items organized into groups.
- Timelines for all teams will toggle open simultaneously, eliminating the need to manually activate them one by one.
Post-Mission Summary
While our goal was to modernize the post-Mission summary, we’ve realized the removal of Accolade Cards and their animations detracted from the game’s identity. Here’s how we’re addressing that:
- After a Mission, players will immediately see their Accolades, complete with new animations to celebrate your achievements.
- A comprehensive Mission Stats screen and Weekly Challenge progression will follow, putting critical information front and center.
- Sub-menus will be consolidated into tabs at the top to streamline navigation and reduce friction.
Pause Menu Enhancements
We’ve prioritised context and quick access to critical information in multiplayer Missions:
- The game will now remain visible in the background of the pause menu, preserving situational awareness.
- Your team’s loadouts will move out of sub-menus and be the first thing you see for quick reference during Missions.
After implementing these updates, our focus will shift toward refining other planned Quality of Life improvements. Along the way, we’ll also identify and introduce smaller adjustments to further enhance your overall experience.
Equipment Skin Selection
We’ve heard your feedback about the inconvenience of navigating to a separate menu to select Skins for your equipment. To address this, we’ve brought Skin selection directly to the Equipment Grid.
- Integrated Skin Selection: Players will be able to toggle through their owned Skins for their equipment directly within the Equipment Grid.
- Future Enhancements: We’re also working on improving the flow for equipping Charms and Equipment Animations, with more details to come later.
Recruit Free Hunters
We’ve heard your concerns about the difficulty of comparing recruits effectively. To address this, we’re reverting to an older design:
All four Hunters and their loadouts will now be visible simultaneously, reducing memory strain and back-and-forth navigation.
Hunter Details Improvements
PC players have often felt that the Hunter Details screen was redundant, since they could interact with all widgets present directly from the previous screen. The primary concern was having to navigate to a separate screen for actions that felt too similar. To address this, we are removing the distinction between the two screens, creating a more seamless experience. We aim to make Hunter Details a focused view of the active roster while retaining access to your other Hunters.
- Integrated Hunter Grid: When a Hunter is selected, the grid will now minimize to the bottom of the screen, allowing quick access to other Hunters without leaving the current view.
- Streamlined Transition: Hunter Details will act as a transitional screen, letting you maintain focus on your current Hunter while keeping other options easily accessible.
- Top Navigation: The top navigation bar will now remain visible in Hunter Details, providing direct access to other key screens like Loadouts, Lobby, and Store.
Events Screen
To improve the flow between the Battle Pass rewards screen and the rest of the UI, we are streamlining navigation and functionality.
- Direct Access to Rewards: Clicking the Battle Pass tab in the top navigation now takes you directly to the Rewards screen, removing the need for an intermediate menu.
- Integrated Event Details: Other Event-related screens, such as Event Details, will now be accessible directly from the Rewards screen.
- Equip/Recruit Items Directly: Players can now equip unlocked equipment and Skins, as well as recruit Hunters, directly from the Rewards screen. This eliminates the need to navigate to other screens to use newly unlocked equipment or Hunters.
Visual Improvements
Feedback about our rarity backgrounds indicated that they felt out of place, being overly colorful compared to the rest of the UI. Our team has worked to ensure these elements align better with the overall aesthetic while enhancing the focus on equipment and Hunters.
- Lighting Updates: All equipment and Hunters will now feature improved lighting, making them stand out more against dark backgrounds and reducing their grey tones.
- Refined Rarity Displays: Rarity colors are now more subtle, shown in the corners of items instead of dominating the background. This change ensures the items themselves remain the primary focus while keeping the rarity indicators consistent with the UI’s overall look.
Lobby Improvements
We’ve heard your feedback on the Home screen and Lobby, and will share our progress in an upcoming update. Our goal is to unify Lobbies into a single screen while also improving party management with these much-requested features:
- Adding the ability for Duos to matchmake a random third player.
- Retaining parties when switching game modes.
- Allowing any party member (not just the leader) to send invites.
- Enabling PC players to invite two players at once.
- Allowing party leadership to be transferred between members.
We’re committed to making Hunt: Showdown 1896 the best experience it can be. These updates reflect our dedication to listening, learning, and improving based on your feedback. We look forward to bringing these improvements to you throughout 2025. Thank you for your continued support—we couldn’t do this without you.
NOTE: All the images featured in this post are not final and are subject to change before the final product is released.
– Your Hunt: Showdown 1896 team
