Welcome to Early Access, Hunters! As you're jumping into Steel Hunters, your feedback—both excitement and frustrations—plays a key role in shaping our game. Whether you're new here or have been helping us test for a while, your ideas and experiences help make Steel Hunters better.
Steel Hunters isn't developed in isolation. As a live-service game, Steel Hunters is being built to be around for years to come and we know from experience that the only way to keep a game alive over such periods is to involve players into the process.
We want to share how your feedback moves from a great idea to something you actually experience in the game. It’s a process, and here's why it sometimes takes longer than you'd expect.
When a new version of Steel Hunters goes live, we're already wrapping up the development of the next version. This means feedback received today can typically not be incorporated earlier than two versions down the line. Why? Because each feature or improvement requires careful planning, coding, testing, and refining to make sure it fits smoothly into the game without introducing new issues.
Quick Disclaimer: Game development can be complex and sometimes unpredictable. While some suggestions might seem simple, even minor changes often have deeper impacts that need thorough testing to ensure they enhance—not break—your gaming experience.
You've already influenced Steel Hunters significantly. Here are some recent improvements shaped directly by your suggestions from earlier testing:
Instant pickups: Players told us picking up items felt clunky, interrupting the action. We made most pickups instant to keep gameplay smooth and engaging, while keeping critical items (like repair kits) a discrete action that can be interrupted.
Reduced cooldown from sprint to firing: Your feedback highlighted how long cooldowns broke the flow of combat, so we shortened them, letting you react quicker during fights.
Better skill trees: You said skill trees felt limited and basic. You can see the beginning of our work with the new System Trees in game. Going forward we will expand on this framework to ensure you have more meaningful choices to make.
The next set of improvements, directly inspired by your feedback, is already in testing:
Cheaper unique skill tree nodes: You felt these nodes were too expensive. We've reduced their credit cost by 50% and will refund any credits spent previously on unique nodes. We will keep monitoring and adjusting credit income and sinks until we are happy with the overall balance.
Streamlined HUD: Many of you said the HUD was cluttered and distracting. We’ve simplified it for easier readability.
Clearer match progression indicators: You wanted more visibility into how your upgrades and levels impact gameplay, so we've made this clearer during matches. We will expand on this later on to add your abilities and how Ability Power affects them.
Faster ammo recharge: Ammo shortages felt frustrating, so we sped up ammo recharge times, especially when you are low on mags.
Improved melee combat: You found melee too restrictive, so we've adjusted cooldowns and attack ranges. Let us know what else you'd like to improve as we work towards Melee 2.0!
Flexible mission logic: Some missions previously forced specific Hunters. Now, any Hunter can complete them, offering more freedom in playstyle choices—albeit with higher mission requirements.
Heatbreaker rebalance: Your feedback indicated that Sonar Pulse silence was overly punishing and frustrating to play against. It now only interrupts channeled abilities and consumables without full silencing, while it also reveals your position for strategic counterplay. Note that this is just one of the balance changes coming to her in 0.41.
We gather feedback from everywhere—Discord, Steam, surveys, gameplay data, and more—and your input helps shape what we focus on next. Our community and dev teams work hand in hand to find key ideas and suggestions, respond to concerns, and keep you in the loop through regular updates and retrospectives. If you want your voice heard, the best way is to hop into our Discord server and join the #suggestions-and-feedback forum, this helps us immensely, even if you just upvote other great ideas!
Together, we're building Steel Hunters into something special. So keep the feedback coming—we’re listening.
