Happy Fall, Onward Community!
The leaves are dropping from the trees and so is the news from our dev team! We have several major updates for you this month including a status update on the next update release, some changes on the store front, and information regarding accessing previous versions of the game.
As we stated in the previous sitrep, the team has been focused on the final batch of major backend updates. We are happy to announce that the work is wrapping up and the next update (1.9) will be released before the end of the year. We will be going over some of the details of what will be included in the 1.9 update in the Devs’ Desk section of this sitrep.
Before we dive into the upcoming updates we need to talk about Onward 1.7. Over the past two years since our release on Quest the hardcore PC players among you sometimes went back to play this version of the game. We wanted to facilitate that option for as long as we could, in recognition of the PC community who supported us when the game was originally launched and continued throughout the early years of development. However, with all the fundamental changes we’re making to our backend it is no longer feasible to keep running the legacy systems that version 1.7 relies on. We’ve made the choice to remove access to it starting October 27th, 2022. We remain committed to Onward on PC, and we are focused on the future of the game as we continue development.
On to more exciting news! We have long believed we should build Onward so that you can play on any platform you want, and with the success of Airlink and an increased interest in playing Onward on PC, in November, Onward will be available as a cross-buy title on the Meta Quest platform. This means that if you own Onward on the Meta Quest store, you will get access to the Oculus App for PC for free and vice versa. Please note: The Steam version of Onward is separate (not covered by Meta Quest cross-buy) and will still require a separate purchase of the game. Stay tuned for updates and exact launch day as time gets closer.
From the Devs’ Desks:
We are currently focused on finalizing update 1.9 for release. While the bulk of the work is focused on infrastructure and backend, we are also working on a new feature and also a number of bug fixes the community has been asking for.
Coming in 1.9 is an all new in-game player reporting system. Players will now have the ability to report other players directly in the tent. Players can be reported for using hateful language, inappropriate drawing, hacking/exploiting, harassment, and team killing. The goal is to provide an in-game solution to make it easier to report toxic players, cutting down on overall toxicity in the game, resulting in more enjoyable game sessions.
With this new feature, we expect to be able to more effectively identify disruptive players. If a player is banned they will now receive a notification that they are banned. When a ban is issued it is permanent and the banned player will need to go through the appeals process in order to try and have the ban removed. If you have any questions about what are considered bannable offenses or behaviors not accepted in the game, please read our community guidelines.
We also wanted to take this time to highlight some bugs the community has been inquiring about that will be getting fixed in the upcoming update:
- A fix has been added for the syringe invisibility exploit.
- Voice chat has been adjusted to automatically reconnect if your voice chat connection is lost
- We fixed weapons not rotating when using the virtual gunstock option.
- When a player dies their corpse should no longer fly into the air.
For the full list of features and bug fixes, make sure to check out the patch notes when update 1.9 is released.
Community Center:
With 10 total teams participating, the VR Charity Tournaments raised $1,400 USD for StackUp. The money will go towards helping veterans who suffer from PTSD, depression, anxiety, and more. The VR Charity group is still accepting donations year round with their link here.
Fast Action Response won the SPINOSAURUS tier
Unicorn Sparkles won the TREX tier
Congratulations to the winning teams and thank you to everyone who donated to this great cause!
New Custom Content Releases
Contrast Night submitted by Virus
A clean Freeroam oriented map made up of 3 floors. Have Fun!
Speedball (COD) submitted by Whitefang
Inspired by Speedball from COD, designed for balanced 1v1 combat.
We’re excited for the upcoming releases and getting back to bringing new content to the game.
Stay Frosty!