The Mega Patch is Live Now!

Hello Treasure Hunters,

We just released our first content patch for Treasure Hunter Simulator. This patch introduces many new things, improvements, changes and bug fixes that you requested in your reviews and forum comments. In fact, the new update is so big, we decided to call it MEGA PATCH!!! (dum, dum dum!)

Please keep in mind that due to the number of balance and gameplay changes you will need to start a new game. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Our aim in this patch was to make Treasure Hunter Simulator a game that focuses on completion and finding all the treasures instead of having an endless supply of bullet shells. We continue to implement changes and improvements to the game, and this is the first large step to bring it more into the direction we should have taken at release.

Check out the full list of changes down below. Please let us know what you are thinking about our game in the current state. It would be awesome if you could go back to your Steam review and update it accordingly 

GAME FEATURES

  • We’ve added lots of new treasures scattered over all locations for you to find.
  • The locations you visit now randomize their treasures only once when you enter them for the first time. This allows for location completions and clearing them completely instead of having your progress reset every time you visit. This change does not affect the Exploration Mode.
  • Collection displays have been added to the office. These medium and small wooden boxes are created to hold specific sets of items. Once you find an item that fits into a collection, it will be automatically added there. Try to complete all the sets.
  • The identification system has been completely reworked. After spraying a treasure to clean it up, you need to recognize it by finding unique details on the item. This process becomes easier the more items of the same type you find.
  • The Exploration Mode is now available right away and no longer requires you to finish the Story Mode. This change has been made to allow the less hardcore treasure hunters to enjoy the game at their own pace without worrying about any storylines.
  • The office has been expanded. Now you can move freely to admire your collections in the new displays.
  • The displays in the office will show placeholders until you can replace them with a treasure you find. You can pick up one of those placeholders to get information in which locations you should look for that particular treasure.

BALANCE CHANGES

  • The prices of treasures have been increased to more closely reflect their value in the real world. Keep in mind that while the value of some treasures has now been greatly increased, it will still be worth a lot less than in the real world. It would be just impossible to balance the game with a treasure worth 100,000$ or sometimes, even more, so we sacrifice some realism for game balancing.
  • The prices for travelling to distant locations and buying detectors have been increased to fit with the new balance changes.
  • All jobs you accept now offer money as an additional reward to the prestige they offered so far. We felt that the main jobs should at least help cover the expenses. The gains from jobs increase significantly with your progress.

OTHER CHANGES

  • Treasures are now divided across locations in a much more thought out way.
  • The jobs and collections interface has been fully redesigned to be easier to understand and navigate.
  • Steam Cloud saving has been added to the game. It can be enabled via the new in-game “Other” options category.
  • The performance of all the maps has been greatly improved even on low-end setups.
  • The number of clicks needed to dig up an item has been decreased.
  • The treasure position in dug up holes has been improved, and now all items should be visible.
  • Treasures that have not yet been cleaned are covered with a lot more dirt.
  • The office and the main menu have been combined for a better experience and to reduce the number of loading screens.
  • The main menu camera settings have been readjusted to fit the new office.
  • New walking animations have been added to fit the office movement.
  • New hints have been added to the office map to explain office movement and collections.
  • The identification hint has been expanded to explain the new changes.
  • Each map can now be reset to force respawning of all treasures in new and different spots. This will reset your current progress on the map.

MAP OPTIMIZATIONS

  • Multiple world assets now have a better level of details (LODs).
  • Created hierarchical LODs for the first level of detail.
  • Multiple clusters of static objects have been merged into one.
  • Added missing culling for foliage and disabled the shadows on some of them as they just ate up performance without contributing much visually.
  • Added distance culling for various objects.
  • Removed some parts of the terrain that was never visible.
  • Scaled down the unnecessary complexity of some objects (wireframe density).
  • Disabled the tessellation of multiple objects that didn’t add anything in terms of visual quality.
  • Enabled density scaling for several foliage.

BUGS:

  • Digging should be more reliable now. We changed the method of how items are detected and processed to get rid of multiple problems. It should also greatly help with the “You can’t dig here” issue.
  • Picture detection has been completely reworked which should resolve the problem with being unable to take certain pictures.
  • All items now face the correct way when starting the identification process.
  • Several translation issues have been corrected.
  • All treasures now have correctly scaled icons and backgrounds added to them.
  • Fixed an issue where the PDA could become invisible in the Oman Oasis map.
  • Several issues connected to the treasure randomization have been corrected.
  • The detector movement animations and camera placement have been improved.
  • Multiple “under the hood” code optimizations connected to the player movement, treasure placement and randomization, trash spawning and the save and load system.

Have fun,
Doctor Jones