First of all, thank you to everyone who participated in our first Community Feedback round for Way of the Hunter 2.
Over the past weeks, we've carefully reviewed hundreds of comments, suggestions, discussions, screenshots, videos, and bug reports across both Discord and Steam. The level of detail many of you provided was genuinely impressive, from real-world hunting comparisons and trophy references to in-depth discussions about animal behavior and game mechanics.
As promised, we've gone through the feedback to identify the topics that appeared most frequently and had the strongest community consensus. While not every suggestion will make it into the game, your feedback helps us understand community priorities and guides future discussions within the team.
Below is a summary of the key topics that came up during the first feedback round, along with the areas we're planning to investigate and improve moving forward.
Turkey hunting
The visual side of the update received a lot of positive feedback, which was great to see. Where many of you felt there was still room for improvement, however, was the actual hunting experience.
Following our feedback round, we went through your comments, discussions, and suggestions to identify the areas that came up most often. Some of the reported issues are relatively straightforward to address, while others are tied to larger gameplay systems and will require more time to implement properly.
To make things clearer, we've grouped the feedback into: areas we're currently discussing and prioritizing, and larger ideas that may be explored over time.
What we're planning to investigate first
Calling improvements and more useful turkey tools
One of the most common pieces of feedback was that turkeys don't always respond to calls in a reliable or believable way. We're looking at improving their response to callers and expanding the available turkey hunting tools. Many of you also suggested additional decoy types and stronger attraction when calls and decoys are used together.
Spook range, flee behavior, and return-to-zone logic
A lot of players feel that turkeys are currently too easy to approach. Many of you reported that birds often don't react strongly enough to nearby hunters and tend to return to the same area too quickly after being spooked. We're investigating ways to make turkeys feel more cautious and unpredictable, with more natural flee behavior such as running first, taking flight when necessary, and continuing to move away instead of circling back almost immediately.
Turkey sounds and audible range
You also shared plenty of feedback about turkey vocalizations. We're looking into making gobbles sound more authentic and species-specific, with the possibility of unique gobble profiles for different subspecies. Another frequent request was increasing the audible range of gobbles, allowing them to carry farther than softer turkey calls.
Areas we'll address further down the road
Beard, spur, and age-based trophy systems
Many of you would like turkey trophies to be judged primarily by beard and spur length rather than weight. There were also requests for more visible variation between birds, clearer age progression, differences between jakes and mature gobblers, support for multiple beards, and more visual distinction between low- and high-rated trophies.
Turkey-specific behaviors and animations
Another popular topic was turkey behavior. Players would like to see more authentic animations and activities, including strutting, drumming, scratching, dusting, roosting, and mood-based head color changes. You also suggested more realistic reactions after being shot, such as flapping, kicking, running, or crashing after flight.
Weapon legality, ratings, and turkey-specific equipment
We also received feedback regarding weapon restrictions and harvest ratings. Common concerns included bows not always counting correctly, uncertainty around birdshot, .22 rifles, and arrows, as well as rating penalties that don't always feel intuitive. Additional requests included different shotgun choke options and expanded arrow choices for turkey hunting.
As always, thank you to everyone who took the time to share feedback. Your reports, suggestions, and discussions help us identify what matters most to the community and guide our priorities going forward. While not every improvement can happen immediately, we're committed to making turkey hunting a better and more authentic experience over time.
Mule Deer Trophies
When it came to mule deer trophies, one theme stood out: individuality.
Across both platforms, many of you felt that mule deer antlers currently look too similar to one another. Whether you're looking at a young 1-star buck or a mature 4-star trophy, the overall shape, symmetry, and mass often feel too predictable. Players want trophy animals to feel more unique and memorable, with greater variation between individuals and more excitement when spotting a potential trophy in the field.
Based on your feedback, these are the areas we're planning to investigate first:
What we're planning to look at, in priority order based on your feedback
Antler variation and uniqueness
The most common request was simply more variety. You want mule deer antlers to feel less standardized, with a wider range of shapes and characteristics that make each animal stand out from the next.
This is also an area where our DNA system will play a major role going forward. As the game continues to evolve, we plan to keep expanding the pool of available antler variations, genetics, and generation seeds through future updates. The goal is to continually increase the diversity of animals you encounter over the lifetime of the game.
Antler shape and structure
Many players highlighted the need for greater variation in overall antler structure. This includes things like fork positions, G2 angles, beam placement, and other details that help create more distinct rack silhouettes.
Trophy scaling and star progression
Several of you mentioned that the visual jump between star ratings isn't always obvious enough. We're looking at ways to better communicate trophy quality through antler development and progression as animals mature.
Width and mass variation
Feedback also pointed to a lack of diversity in antler width and mass. Players would like to see a broader range of narrow, wide, light, and heavy racks to create more visual diversity across the population.
Tine randomization and rack combinations
Another frequent request was increased tine variation and more possible rack combinations. The goal is to create a larger pool of potential trophy configurations and reduce the feeling of seeing the same racks repeatedly.
Antler color and texture
Many of you also suggested adding more variation in antler color, weathering, and texture to further reinforce the individuality of each animal.
Young and low-fitness deer realism
Players would like younger and lower-fitness deer to display more realistic antler characteristics, helping create a clearer visual distinction between average animals and high-end trophies.
Non-typicals and rare antlers
Finally, a lot of feedback focused on rare and unusual antler formations. Non-typical racks are already planned for the game and remain an important part of our long-term vision for trophy hunting.
Just like typical antlers, non-typicals will benefit from ongoing improvements to the DNA system. As new genetic variables, generation seeds, and antler configurations are introduced over time, the variety of non-typical racks will continue to grow as well, creating more opportunities for truly unique and memorable trophies.
What’s next?
Before we wrap up, we'd like to thank everyone who participated in this first feedback round. The amount of thoughtful discussion, constructive criticism, and detailed examples has been incredibly valuable to the team.
This won't be the last time we’ll ask for your feedback. In fact, we believe these focused feedback rounds are one of the best ways for us to gather meaningful input on specific parts of the game. Rather than discussing everything at once, they allow us to dive deep into individual systems, understand what matters most to players, and identify clear priorities for future development.
We'll be back soon with another feedback round focused on different areas of Way of the Hunter 2. And this isn't just an Early Access initiative — we plan to continue running these community feedback rounds regularly even after the full release of the game.
We're now well into Update 2 of Way of the Hunter 2 in Early Access. Last week we shipped Patch 0.2.1 and a hotfix, and more fixes are already in progress. A few things worth mentioning from the broader feedback we've been collecting are that piebald fur rendering has already been fixed, the crocodiles are too small and we're looking into it, and Greater kudu's horns need proper alignment.
A new roadmap is coming soon, which will give a clearer picture of what's ahead over the next stretch of Early Access. We're approaching the halfway point of Early Access development and there's still a lot to shape, so keep the bug reports coming, keep the feedback honest, and let's keep building this together.
Happy hunting!
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