Hello Everyone!
We hope you’re all continuing to brush up on those tactics and improve your skills in Onward while we’ve been working on updates and patches alike. A new patch will release next week featuring anti-cheat measures, and we’ve started testing the long-in-the-making Update 1.8.8 earlier in the week. In this edition of the Devs’ Desk we will also outline our roadmap for the next couple of months.
The competitive scene is gearing up as season 11 of the VRML Onward league officially started this week! In addition, more maps have been added to the Custom Maps area of Onward. Check out the community center for the information related to this news.
From The Devs’ Desk:
First things first: recent events forced us to focus our efforts on an anti-cheat system we have been working on over the past couple of months, and we are planning to release patch 1.8.7.3 for Onward that will bring this brand-new system next week.
With one task completed we are looking to get back to the development of update 1.8.8 which remains largely unchanged from our previous Sitrep: it is centered around a large update of the game logic that controls player lobbies, game modes, and many other aspects of the game. This update has been very long overdue, and as those of you who regularly follow these Sitreps can attest to, very long in the making. Aside from these changes we are also including audio improvements and a night version of the Shooting range in this update.
Content is going to be our focus for the updates that follow 1.8.8, with Abandoned Day and Abandoned Night taking center stage for update 1.8.9 and Turbine planned to do the same for update 1.8.10. If you paid attention to the Seals in our April Fools ‘seals’ gag you may have noticed our buddy Andre who premiered the first glimpse of Abandoned.
While these maps are being released all signals are go for the programmers to work on some of the features we’ve mentioned in previous Sitreps: a party system that will allow you to quickly join up to lobbies with your friends, a ranking and progression system to keep track of your performances, and the lighting update in the form of Shadowmask. Last time around we were still waiting for a Unity update to be able to bring back Shadowmask lighting and other lighting improvements to PCVR, and we’re very happy to say that this update recently released, and work on our end can begin once Update 1.8.8 is out the door.
Although this is far from all that we’re working on, it should give you a clearer picture of what to expect from our updates in the next couple of months.
Community Center:
Season 11 for the VRML Onward league officially kicked off earlier this week! We are looking forward to watching the matches and seeing all the displays of teamwork and tactics that are sure to keep us on the edge of our seats. To watch the matches throughout the season check out the Onward section on the VRML website: https://vrmasterleague.com/Onward
The library of custom maps in Onward keeps expanding. We’ve highlighted four new releases for April:
Speedball by F.Lapinski
Speedball is a map with 4 unique fields scaled and copied from an official NXL World Series layout. Each field has its own boarders and each field can only be played depending on the Objective location. This map is best played with the preferred loadout of a Specialist Shotgun using only slug rounds and smoke grenades. This gives it a balanced chaotic feel to the game with such a small paintball field being used.
Preston Yard by KIRI
"Preston Yard is an ever changing, competitive focused map, that receives frequent quality of life changes based on player feedback. It's a map built for competitive play, by a competitive player. The map follows the traditional 3 lane system, and has a variety of interesting angles, points of interest and realistic world detail. Preston Yard has the potential to be a fan favorite map, and has received nothing but outstanding praise by everyone who has played it. I would LOVE to get this map in the VRML map pool, and work with the community to create one of the best maps Onward has ever seen!"
Apocalyptic by Nolomite
The fallout from the pandemic has led to World War III, and civil wars due to pandemic related deaths and political polarization. Two factions emerge to either cease or defend the most powerful weapon, the uplink.
Villapuma by Rubio
Marsoc is locked in Puma Village and must deactivate the uplink. The streets are patrolled by VOLK soldiers