Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the eighth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of March 2021. Apologies for the delay on this one—there has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes and it took some extra time get everything ready for this month’s update.
First up, for those that missed it, Bluedrake and Karmakut did their first TacTalk podcast where they discussed the state of the tactical shooter/milsim gaming space from their perspectives, and went over a lot of great information pertaining to O:HD/OHDCore and what is to come. If you are up for the watch, you can check it out here from Bluedrake’s perspective (well worth it if you want to learn more about the philosophies and principles of our projects):
Here it is from Karmakut’s perspective as well (and if you aren’t subscribed to them on YouTube you should be!).
Next up, we also recently had some issues with our server providers where all of the development related infrastructure is located, so we wanted to catch everyone up on that. Long story short, their backup generators caught on fire which triggered the fire suppression system, and flooded out their data center. Fortunately, nothing was lost so this was merely a 2-3 week setback, and most of the team was still able to continue on with their tasks as planned. That said, as of the time writing this, the one thing that we are still missing is the Steam build server, which is what we use to actually push new updates and builds to Steam—this is why everyone has seen less updates on the main and test environment branches of the game the past few weeks (if you really want to read more about it, you can do so here). We are currently in the process of transitioning to a new provider, so everything should be back up and running in that regard here very soon!
Now on to the actual development work that was done in March:
Expansions
Operation: Rolling Stone
Our upcoming Vietnam expansion, Operation: Rolling Stone, received a lot more work on the Lam Dong map, new foliage assets were made for populating the jungle areas of the map, and many of the upcoming weapons received animation work (which will be shown in a later section).
Here you can see the map as it has progressed in blockout phase, with some look dev detailing work done as well:
New jungle foliage assets:
Operation: Michael
For our upcoming WW1 expansion, Operation: Michael, more work was done on the Meuse-Argonne Offensive map. At this stage the map is still purely in blockout phase as the level design team works towards laying out all of the trench line locations, and where buildings will be placed/laid out:
Maps
Risala
Risala has begun being detailed and filled out with proper buildings and environment props (many of which you will be familiar with from Khafji):
In next month’s devblog we will take a deeper dive into this map as a considerable amount of work has been done on it in April. Risala will be available for more regular testing very soon.
Training Grounds
The level design team has made a sizable leap forward with their work on the Training Grounds map since it was mentioned last month that it is in development. There is still a lot of work to go on it, and it will likely be receiving updates well into the future as more and more features are completed for OHDCore, but it now has basic functionality and is playable for those that want to experiment in it (alone or with others in a server—the killhouse section of the map is a fun time with two small teams fighting each other).
Animations
In the month of March, the animation team created a series of new animations for weapons that will be primarily used in Operation: Rolling Stone (Vietnam) and Overlord (WW2), which you can find some of the renders of down below:
M16A1, AK47, M79 Grenade Launcher, SKS, M14, RPD, BAR, M1903A3 Springfield, 1911
Objects, Models, and Textures
World Props and Environment Assets
Last month the 3D modeler team worked on a number of props and assets for use across the various maps that are being created right now.
We are pleased to announce that the modular shoot house props that were created for use on the Training Grounds map are actually now available for purchase through the Unreal Engine marketplace—you can find them here. Any purchases of these assets is another great way to support us—if anyone buys them and uses them in their project let us know! Here are some screenshots:
Our modular shoot house props in use in the development of SCP Pandemic, a game by our good friends at Affray Studios (check them out and give them a follow and wishlist if you like what you see!)
Some destroyed variants of existing building assets that will be used later on maps like Khafji to give it a more war torn feeling:
A variety of huts for use in the Lam Dong map:
And finally a couple of other misc. props—one of the shovels for use in infantry kits, and a tire wall for use in the Training Grounds map:
Upcoming and WIP Features
Software Development Kit (SDK) and Modding
During March our lead programmer worked almost exclusively on getting the SDK ready for public use. We are currently in the middle of working with Epic on getting the SDK implemented into their launcher (exactly how you would find other SDKs, such as Squad, Insurgency: Sandstorm, Conan Exiles, and so on) so that modders and modding teams can get their hands on it as soon as possible.
The next step in this process—once the SDK is actually available via the Epic launcher—is setting up the Steam Workshop implementation. Workshop functionality is what will allow players to actually be able to download and load mods onto their client and on servers. Because the SDK access will likely be coming first, there will be a short period of time where mods will not be able to be ran outside of the SDK itself (although this should actually have a positive side effect as that means there will likely be mods ready on day one of the Workshop being available, plus modders will be able to start familiarizing themselves with how modding in OHDCore works ahead of time).
In addition, the programming team also worked on the basic foundation/framework for how modding will work overall, such as the functions and methods for modding support to make sure the game is easily moddable, and coming up with a good system for ensuring mods can stay up to date with updates to the game and SDK (to avoid mods breaking due to updates). One of the ways that we plan on doing that is offering players the ability to roll back their versions of the game to make sure they aren't forced out of using mods if the game and/or SDK needs to get an update. In addition to that, we are exploring ideas like staggering main branch updates with test environment updates alongside the SDK so that mods can be updated before a main branch update is pushed so that the day we need to update the main game, mods can come along at the exact same time without any interruptions.
Building/Construction System
Another programmer on the team spent time setting up the foundations for the construction system that will be used for things like building FOBs. Right now the primary goal is to make sure that the systems we are developing will not only work well, but also perform at scale to ensure gameplay is consistent and works how it is intended on a full, action packed server.
Some very WIP demonstrations of how this system will work:
We are still working out the details of how all of this will be balanced and incorporated into the gameplay loop, but this is how the base functionality will work: squad leaders will be able to access the build menu via the radial menu system, place down construction points, and then squad/team members will be able to use their shovels to construct/deconstruct accordingly (very similar to what you would be used to in games like Project Reality and Squad). This system should be integrated into the test environment soon for testing and general feedback.
Warfare 1944
Not much to report on Warfare this month, but if you have not had a chance to check out the latest devblog update from last month you can find it here. In that update we outlined all of the improvements that were brought to the base game due to the work that was put into the OHDCore framework, such as suppression mechanics, tracers, and so on.
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Thank you for checking out this month’s devblog! Next month we will have some exciting news to share with everyone that we think you will all be interested in, so keep your eye out for the next devblog and announcements in the Discord and on Bluedrake’s YouTube channel.
Make sure to join the O:HD Discord, and be sure to follow our Steam announcements to track updates. See you all next time!
-Goomes, Lead Community Manager