Hey guys,
We’ve been doing regular and frequent testing during the progress of this patch, and despite its delays we feel incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and really think you guys will enjoy the new content and features, and of course the many, many bug fixes (seriously, scroll down and take a look!). We are aware of a few issues with the new update, and we are actively investigating the causes, but in the meantime we don’t want to keep you guys waiting any longer. We’ve decided to give you the update for the weekend on a preliminary basis, and will revert back to the previous version of the game on Monday. The reason for this is that we want to gauge community feedback and get a consensus on the direction we’re taking the game, and how it performs. In the very near future, we do of course intend on releasing it for good, we just want to tweak some things and improve performance to a state we’re happy with.
If anyone has problems on this build (we’re aware that there are occasional performance issues), they can swap back to v1.1 of the game using the Steam beta key ‘PreviousBuild2018’.
We also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the recent passing away of a beloved member of the Onward community, Austin Aiken (better known in the community as ‘Capptin’). We found out the news early yesterday and that Austin’s fiancé had started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with their finances as a result of his passing. We are absolutely blown away by the generosity of our community on the fundraiser and we’re extremely proud to have such incredible people playing our game. As a tribute to Austin, we’re adding a small commemoration into the game, in the form of dog tags in the loadout tent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Austin’s friends and family.
Featured Updates
New Map: Cargo
We used to have a very different version of Tanker in the game, before our re-make of it. A lot of the community felt that the replacement wasn’t true to the original (given that the layout had drastically changed. We heard the feedback, and felt it was a good time bring that layout back with an improved location and lighting, so here’s Cargo!
New Map: Bazaar2
A night-time version of Bazaar, complete with lit up neon signs! It’s terrifying on Operations.
Lighting Improvements
- All maps have had their lighting redone to take advantage of performance improvements and new Unity features. Notable improvements:
- Improved specular lighting: metal objects, especially weapons, have a much more metallic look instead of the previous matte finish
- Interior lighting for Downfall 1 & 2
- Scope glint
[img=https://media.giphy.com/media/bFcHNClI0JKykoaiB6/giphy.gif]
Inventory Refactor
- Ambidextrous! All pickups can be pickup up, dropped, swapped between hands and shared between players. Dominant hand no longer matters in determining which hand can grab what
- Added Hold to Grip option! We highly recommend this for players using an Oculus Rift
- You can hold two objects at the same time Not including primary or secondary weapons
- Downed/dead AI and players drop all their pickups, and you can loot their dropped gear
- Holstered grenades are now visible on other player vests
- Interchangeable magazines: Some magazines can be inserted and fired from multiple weapons. Most Marsoc rifles use STANAG mags and will be interchangeable. Full list of mag support at the bottom of the patch notes
- Some things you can now do:
- You can grab and throw live smoke grenades
- A teammate gets downed, you can pick up their syringe and revive them with it
- Steal weapons and equipment from downed enemy combatants
- Pull the pin on a grenade but leave the spoon attached, you can pass the grenade to your other hand or another player without the spoon flying off
- You can keep your weapon out with one hand while you use your other hand to check your Tablet
- You can put magazines in your holstered guns, other player’s holstered guns, or other player’s guns they are currently holding
- In Escort, sacrifice your gear to get the VIP better-equipped to survive
- You can have a primary weapon holstered while having a different primary weapon in your hands
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[img=https://media.giphy.com/media/4VY69DVMn97tEplXWP/giphy.gif]
Added TAR-21 and weapon remodels
- Replaced M9, M1014, and G36c models with in-house created ones
- Added TAR-21 rifle to Volk Specialist loadout
[img=https://media.giphy.com/media/1XamrdT86iGO7ckcK8/giphy.gif]
Easy Anti-Cheat delayed
- Unfortunately we encountered some very last minute issues with EAC which could have prevented a large portion of our playerbase from being able to play the game. On that note we’ve had to delay the release of EAC until a later date. This will be introduced in the final update.
Competitive gamemode improvements
- Each class can only be used by one player at a time
- Game mode on map vote will only show the currently played one
- Objective/Spawn behavior changed. Teams will take turns defending/attacking the same objective before changing to a new objective (ex. Volk defends objective A, Marsoc spawns at a random spawn. The round ends, teams swap factions, and Volk still defends objective A, and Marsoc spawns at a random spawn)
- Turned off random weather events
- Based on community feedback, suiciding/exiting as the last player on Volk (after the round reset ruling) will give Marsoc 2 points
- We’ve replaced the suicide with the ability to destroy the Uplink dish (only as the last alive player left on Volk). This can be done by inputting a code on the tablet and waiting for a progress bar. The further you are from the objective, the longer this will take to send (signal bars will indicate this). While it’s sending, the objective will beep franticly, and once sent it will shutdown, giving Marsoc 1 point.
- On both comp and non-comp lobbies (but affecting comp more), the map will be visible with the objective location in the tent prior to spawn, to allow players to plan accordingly
Upgraded Oculus Utilities to 1.22
- Oculus users should see a GPU performance improvement
Multiplayer Free Roam
- We’ve extended the Free Roam gamemode to be available in private multiplayer lobbies. This is intended for players to be able to explore and/or learn the maps together, plan strategies and create content. We’re considering making changes to this mode in an upcoming patch to help target it more for our intended usage (instead of it being used as a TDM). However, it’s worth noting that we aren’t ruling out gamemodes with respawns for the future. If introduced, we would be sure to implement it in such a way that it wouldn't take away from what we consider to be the ‘core’ Onward experience.
Casting improvements
- Cameras will be hidden by default until space is held
- Loading message added to freecam view between maps
- Voice sliders, team names over cams and spectating text are all color coded now
- Hotkeys added to jump to and cycle through alive players through team 1 and 2 (hotkeys are - and + respectfully)
- Hotkeys added to spectate individual players on each team (if they are alive) - keypad numbers 1 - 5 for team 1, CTRL + keypad numbers for team 2. If no keypad is available, ALT + alpha numbers, or CTRL + ALT + alpha numbers.
- Colored dots have been added under the scores to indicate how many players alive/down/dead on each team at a glance. This is useful for knowing which player you want to spectate
- Mouse smoothing setting is saved between rounds & sessions
- Main menus can now be navigated using keyboard. Can now get into a casting lobby without touching a VR headset or controller.
- Chat volume sliders affect lobby voices too
- Free roam cam locks mouse into window (no more edge snapping!)
- Better scoreboard setup
- Potential fix for cams turning white
- Added reset cams button which should solve any cam problems if they arise
General
- Radio: Added physical radio object which will drop by your feet when you get downed. This can be seen through any other meshes and allows players to always be able to reach it (as opposed to a ragdolled body, which was inconsistent)
- Added semi-transparent hands when downed, to help with interacting with the aforementioned radio
- Settings: Wristwatch hand preference can now be set in the settings menu
- Settings: Gun-smoothing options have now been introduced in the settings menu. Stock and/or snap-turn users may want to try these out
- Tent: Added a drawing board with some pens to uplink, operations & escort! Drawings will only be shared with your current team and will reset at the end of each round Drawing board also has a secret pen. We won’t tell you how to get it
- Tent: Added military base surroundings
- Tent: Enemy players are now shown on the map in non-competitive lobbies Enemy players could already be seen from flying VR spectate camera
- Tent: Dead players now have white noise on spectate screen to indicate loss of signal (to help prevent ghosting in comp lobbies)
- Tent: Added cross symbol next to player names to indicate that player has been downed
- Tent: Moved Exit button to the back
- Haptics added to many weapons/pickup interactions (pickup up, dropping, throwing, interacting, fire-mode toggle, drop/insert mag)
- Audio: Added audio to grabbing, holstering, and throwing items
- AI: AI can now spawn with lasers (night maps only), holo and red dot sights equipped
- Ammo boxes: Will now contain equipment in addition to mags. The mags will be based on the weapons you currently have holstered and/or held. Only you can see the gear until you pull it out, then it can be shared
- Free Roam: Added ammo boxes
- Shooting range: The ammo boxes on the shooting range can now spawn more gear by closing and re-opening them. Removed the pile of mags
- Shooting Range: Added some screens which will show the last target you hit with weapon fire
- Server browser: Added some basic info for each lobby as a pop-up box when hovering over
- Night Vision: Now lights up the surrounding area with an IR light. Will be a lot more useful on dark maps. Nobody else can currently see this light (for performance reasons, though this may change in future)
- Tablet: Added signal bars to indicate when the uplink/destroy code can be send
- Ballistic Shield: Can now stop pickups thrown at it
- Ballistic Shield: Kills caused by grenades bouncing off your shield are attributed to you
- Additional anti-cheat/exploit behavior
- Tutorial: reworded to accommodate new control options
- Operations: AI can no longer see through hedges on Suburbia
- Updated to Unity 2017.3
- Removed DirectX9 support. This should not affect any users.
Support for DX9 willl be officially removed from Unity in the near future and current versions of SteamVR and OVR don't support DX9.
Updated Quality settings
- Lowest - Quarter res textures, 2x MSAA and low res shadows
- Low - Half res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
- Medium - Full res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
- High - Full res textures, 8x MSAA and high res shadows The shadow resolution change will only affect realtime lights
Balance
- Downfall: Added lights to interiors to reduce Volk advantage of having black camo inside buildings
- Downfall & Quarantine: Fire now causes damage over time. Prevents Volk hiding in crashed heli
- Artificial turning: Snap turns will now have a delay (and smooth turning slowed down) based on whether you’re stood, crouching or prone.
- AI: Nudged player and AI spawns on Jungle and Quarantine to prevent getting shot at on spawn
- M40A5: Increased magazine count from 3 to 6 to balance with the SV-98. SV-98 has 10-round mags and M40A5 only has 5-round mags
- Extended grenade blocker time for competitive lobbies to better match up with the Onward Master League’s ruling
Fixes
- Improved victory/defeat condition code to stop potential issues with round ending problems
- Fixed issue where leftover smoke from smoke grenades would persist between rounds
- Uplink: Fixed being able to play the same objective placement three times in a row
- Uplink: Fixed occurrence where the uplink could be sent without the tablet being fully inside the signal region
- AI Game Modes: fixed “dumpster spawn” that occurred when gamemode was changed while spawning
- Connection: Increased timeout length for network traffic to help prevent random disconnects for users on WiFi and/or less stable connections
- Player: Fixed vest fidgeting while sprinting
- Player: Improved "push back" when putting head through walls to fix improper behavior around complicated geometry
- Player: Snap and smooth turns now rotate you on the spot. This will prevent players rotating into walls/out of the map. Previously rotated around room center, and then attempted to reposition the player
- Player: Fixed vest being visible if quit to lobby and started spectating
- Player: Fixed occurrences which could lead to players falling through the map
- Player: Fixed occurrence which could lead to spawning in with a black screen and flies
- Player: Fixed very close objects clipping through white flashbang and fade to black visual effects
- Player: Fixed being able to move through walls in playspace when downed
- Player: Fixed night vision lenses being very visible through smoke grenade particles
- Radio: Fixed occurrence where one or more players would not be audible on the radio
- Shooting Range: Fixed getting stuck when respawning on hills
- Shooting Range: Fixed problem with players not having audible proximity voice
- Tent: Fixed players being unable to hear you until the end of the round if you join while it’s in progress
- Tent: Highlighted VR goggles when available, to help highlight to players that they are functional
- Tent: Fixed issue with spectating screen going black when someone leaves the lobby
- Fixed breath particles on cold maps not appearing in correct position for non-local players
- Fixed rare case of playing the same objective 3 times in a row if host left
- Fixed ammo boxes incorrectly being visible in some Uplink lobbies
- Weapon: Fixed weapons not firing the same direction across all clients. This was not affecting how damage was dealt or hits determined, but bullet holes and impact effects will now be in the same position for all clients.
- Exploit: Fixed exploit related to running across playspace & snap/smooth turning
- Bazaar: Improved white van collision near center of map (large area in front of van and gaps below van were incorrectly blocking bullets)
- Quarantine: Fixed LOD terrain issues
- Bazaar & Downfall: Fixed bad collision with white van
- Inventory Fixes
- Knife: Can no longer deal damage through walls
- Syringe: Can no longer be used on dead or un-wounded players
- Syringe: Fixed incorrectly being able to be used on you while you are not bleeding (syringes only stop bleeding, they do not add health)
- Syringe: Fixed healing sometimes causing a lag spike for all players
- Syringe: Fixed accidental healing when trying to holster syringe
- Ammo Box: Fixed grabbing mags from ammo boxes being difficult
- Ammo Box: Mags taken from ammo box will now be visible to all players
- Gun: Re-grabbing a weapon that is only held by barrel/foregrip is no longer as difficult
- Gun: Fixed unwanted firing of primary weapon while holstering (if holding weapon in just offhand, holding down trigger button to use radio, let go of offhand, dominant hand would snap back to weapon and begin firing as it was being holstered)
- Gun: Fixed hand getting stuck to weapon bolt if holding onto bolt as you grab the foregrip/barrelgrip
- Gun: Fixed being able to grab foregrip/barrelgrip while a weapon is holstering resulting in an invisible hand
- Gun: Fixed being out of shotgun ammo but shells are still visible on vest
- Gun: Fixed dying with weapon just in offhand causing no visible hands on respawn
- Gun: Fixed getting stuck in hand if you died while it was only in your offhand
- Gun: Fixed AUG laser sight disappearing/reappearing when toggled on/off
- Gun: Fixed PKM bullet belt missing material
- Gun: Fixed bolt action rifles not chambering a round when bolt is cycled after a new mag was inserted
- Gun: Fixed holstered weapons always showing a mag attached regardless of if there really is a mag attached
- Gun: Fixed attachment click on/off audio not playing in correct position on weapon
- Ballistic Shield: Fixed stretching horizontally when revived repeatedly
- Magazine: Fixed mags getting stuck while ejecting if another mag was inserted before the first one finished ejecting
- Magazine: Fixed M40A5 mag incorrectly showing bullets when it is empty
- Grenade: Fixed holding a live smoke grenade until it times-out preventing you from using smokes in the following rounds
- Grenade: Fixed being able to unpin and un-spoon a grenade while inside a wall
- Tablet: Fixed being able to send uplink code while tablet inside a wall
- Hand: Fixed "broken finger" animation resulting from hand attempting to interact with things that are disabled (hand hovering over ammo, holster primary, hand could still attempt to grab ammo)
- Hand: Can no longer use the hand/anything being held if it’s further than 1.5m from your player
Additional Notes
- Full list of interchangeable mags
- STANAG mags: Mk16, Mk17, Mk18, M16A4, FAMAS, AK5C, TAR-21, SA80
- G3 mags: G3, G3 Auto
- 12 gauge: SPAS12, M1014
- AK banana mags: AK12, AK74
Stay updated on Onward, converse with the community, test builds, and participate in organized competitive events by joining our Discord!
For additional information, visit our wiki.