Hello Onward Community,
Your kind words after our last communication meant a lot to us and we were happy to hear that you are excited to see what is coming next for Onward. This month in the Devs’ Desk we will be going over some of the changes that will be going into Update 1.11. The features that are coming soon will address community feedback in addition to offering better quality of life details into the game.
In addition to the changes we are discussing this month, we have some other major updates that are also included in 1.11. However, writing about these features just doesn’t feel like it would do them justice. We are working on some alternative ways to showcase these to you. Be on the lookout for more details soon.
From the Devs’ Desks:
The focus for update 1.11 is to bring features that will help your overall experience. Some of these have been in development for a while and will be completed and ready for update 1.11 and others were specifically picked to address community feedback.
Custom Maps
A major update is coming to Custom Maps: Custom maps can be set to populate in lobbies without needing to be downloaded prior to playing. Currently, if you want to play on a custom map you have to make sure everyone you are playing with has the map prior to starting or it won’t show up in the map vote. After update 1.11, while in the tent players will automatically download the custom map during the map transition after the vote occurs if they don’t have it installed yet. When you set up a lobby you will have four options for how custom maps can populate in the map vote. Options that can be set will be:
- (By default) include all maps available on the Workshop
- Only custom maps that the host has installed
- Only maps that any one person in the lobby has
- Disable custom maps entirely.
When joining servers you will also have a filter to search for lobbies that are Downpour only, custom only, or anything in between.
Our hope is that these changes dramatically improve the visibility of custom content in Onward, and allow for more players to check out the awesome environments our custom content authors are producing.
Evolutions to Current Social Modes
To enhance our social game modes we have made expansions to Gun Game and One in the Chamber. These new options can vastly change your experience in these game modes.
Gun Game
will have randomly generated loadouts that include random guns, attachments, and equipment. The host can choose four different progression options: Linear (the original non-procedural progression), Increasing Power, Decreasing Power, or completely Randomized Power. Every loadout progression ends in a finale stage, like the current shield and knife. However, there are now different finales you can possibly end on. The host can also determine how many stages are in the progression as well as if stages include hand grenades.
One in the Chamber
will include options for weapon types and weapon sights. These will allow you to play the mode with the original pistol, or shotguns, or bolt actions, or even RPGs! In addition, when the last two players are left alive, their watches will beep and you will be able to see the opposing player's location on the tablet. This signals the start of Sudden Death, which will require one player to kill the other within two minutes or they both lose. Additionally, spawns will be randomized each round as originally intended.
Two additional updates will be made to both modes:
- The radio on your shoulder will be available for use during Gun Game and One in the Chamber game matches.
- You will start with night vision goggles when playing on night maps, which has now allowed us to extend the modes to be played on Subway and Tanker.
Player Exploits
We will also be addressing a common exploit where players use various methods to enter locations, on various maps, which they’re not meant to be in. We took some time to address the issue in order to make sure there was proper balance for intended gameplay tactics while being able to address people using exploits to cheat or play in an unintended manner. Players will be killed when trying to enter geometry they’re not supposed to. This should help address and alleviate the frustration you feel when other players resort to using these types of behaviors during matches.
Connecting with Friends
We all know that playing with friends is probably the most fun you can have in Onward. Last year we introduced a way to invite people directly into your game if they are on the same platform as you, and in this update we're turning it up a notch by allowing you to quickly find your friend's lobby even if they are on a different platform. We will be introducing Server IDs to lobbies. You will easily be able to find your friends' games using the “Server ID” option in the lobby browser. When a friend creates or joins a lobby, you will have them simply provide you with the lobby ID number. After entering the code in the browser it will narrow down all the options to quickly find your friends' lobby.
Quality of Life Adjustments
Included in update 1.11 are several quality of life adjustments to the game. Adjustments like these may initially sound like small changes, however, the impact of how it affects your game sessions over time can be massive. Some of these adjustments include:
- Added “Movement Comfort” option in settings to block edges of your screen when moving to help with motion sickness
- Map voting can be initiated by the host in Free Roam and Shooting Range.
- Map voting can now change the game mode in social or cooperative modes, within those modes, just like core modes were able to.
- The Tent radio will be available for use during Co-Op matches so players in the tent can communicate with players in-game
- Ability to create open to public Free Roam lobbies from the lobby creator
- Ability to reach and use your radio on your shoulder when downed as you do when alive instead of it dropping onto the ground with your body
- Spawn Protection will be added to Shooting Range and Free Roam
Bug Fixes
Our team continues to tackle and fix a large list of bugs. We understand that as we make major adjustments to the game and update backend features that it has caused some unintended behaviors to happen in different aspects of the game. We have been closely monitoring the community reports and are working on fixing many of the issues we have seen reported. Some issues reported may require more time as they might be a larger project or are being considered for redesign. Thank you for being patient with us while we continue to work on these.
While we continue work on various bugs, we want to confirm three bugs that have impacted the community and will be fixed in update 1.11. They are the following:
- Weapon gripping will be reversed to its previous behavior (before 1.9). This should resolve the issue with weapons releasing due to recoil or hand positioning
- Weapons not firing or explosives not able to be interacted with have been fixed
- bHaptics and ProTube integration fixed. You will be able to re-enable the settings and use these accessories
We will have more to share as development continues and we get closer to the patch release.
Community Center:
We hope you enjoyed the Onward tips that were shared on our social media accounts. It seemed a lot of players learned some new techniques to add to their gameplay tactics. If you missed them, you can still review them on our social accounts.
Instagram: Onwardthegame
Twitter: @Onwardthegame
Facebook: OnwardTheGame
In line with making quality of life improvements to the game, we have been making some quality of life updates to our Discord community as well. We have reformatted the way you can make game suggestions, report bugs, and also how to get help if you are experiencing any issues with the game. This will provide you with easier visibility to developer responses and ability to connect with other players about the game.
On a final note, by popular request, we have now made the new loading screen artwork available for you in desktop wallpaper formats. To check out all the beautiful 4K scene options, head over to the Media page to download them.
We are looking forward to giving you even more information in the coming weeks. Until then…
Stay alert, look to the horizon.