Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the fourteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of September 2021.
To start this one off, I would like to recap the new roadmap that we recently put out for O:HD looking at the next 6 months:
We are still relatively on track with the last roadmap that we put out, however, we have recently been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to onboard a few new developers that will help us complete an overhaul to the animation systems, as well as the user interface, so we have had to adjust the order in which we tackle some of these tasks and bump the timeline out a bit as a result. This means that we have unfortunately had to move our focus on getting the first implementation of vehicles back to a later date, as some of these overhauls are somewhat time sensitive due to developer availability (namely the animation overhaul system).
Fortunately, getting these tasks completed will be very important for numerous objectives/milestones that we have. The animation overhaul will open the door for some major improvements to our entire animation pipeline by allowing us to incorporate new features (like weapon resting/bipodding and canted aiming), improving the overall look and feel/quality of the animations, and requiring the animators to do less animations per weapon/item (which means they can get even more done in a shorter amount of time). The UI improvements will also be the first step in allowing players to do things like having more control over their game settings, doing things like starting matches with bots without needing the console, a whole new server browser experience with filter systems, mod management, and more. In addition to menu based improvements, we will be redoing the entire in-game HUD/UI with this overhaul, which will also enable us to incorporate things like damage indication, prepare for an upcoming medical overhaul, and more.
We are also currently still planning on a public playtest on Steam, and now we will be utilizing Steam's playtesting system to do so. This is something we feel will be much more ideal for us, as we want to get more people into the game while not rushing development or launching into early access prematurely (not rushing these crucial stages is very important to us). We will have more information about this in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned for that.
Make sure you check out the rest of the roadmap to see what else we will be working on during this time. Now let’s get into the September recap:
Expansions
Operation: Invictus
We do not have a Three Round Burst interview this time around, but we do a have bunch of new gun models and parts to showcase:
Barrett M82 in black and spray painted variants
Dragunov
Beretta M9 to replace existing model
MP443 Grach
Trijicon ACOG and RMR
Aimpoint Micro T-1
M203
EOTech G33 Magnifier
RPK16 Drum Magazine
Cloud Defensive OWL Light
ZENITCO Perst 4
ZENITCO RK-2 Handgrip
AKS74 Stock
Emissary Development Group Handstop & Witt Machine Big Body Tu-Tu-Three (WIP)
An example of what many of the parts above will be used for—prototyping our weapon customization systems
The character artists have also gotten close to finishing a new character model for a faction that will be used in Operation: Invictus:
New Eastern European militant model for an upcoming character pertaining to Invictus’s story/lore
Maps
Khafji
The level designers experimented with some new lighting on Khafji, as well as made updates to the foliage:
Lam Dong
Lighting on Lam Dong was experimented with as well:
Risala
Risala also received some experimentation to its lighting:
Objects, Models, and Textures
World Props and Environment Assets
More world props and environment assets have been made to help flesh out the detailing on all of the maps:
Ammo and weapon cases/containers, concrete barriers, a fuel tank, military flood lights, and a water tank
Foliage
More foliage assets were created for use on existing and upcoming maps:
Upcoming and WIP Features
Animation Overhaul
As I mentioned in the start of the devblog, we are currently working on a complete overhaul to our entire animation system and pipeline. This rework is going to allow us to make the weapon animations more dynamic/procedural, reduce the amount of animations needed per set, and open the door to many new functionalities and features that we have long planned for, such as weapon resting/bipodding, using canted and backup sights, holding the weapon in alternative forms (like braced aiming/point shooting), and more.
Here is a good video recap that Bluedrake did showing off some of these systems in their early/WIP stages:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqDyQEBq0n4
UI Overhaul
We are also working on a complete overhaul to the UI/UX of the game, which will not only encompass what the menus will look like, but also the in-game UI.
Here are some mock-ups for the menu redesigns:
And a WIP concept of the overhaul to the in-game UI:
Please keep in mind that these images are all still very early, placeholder, and are subject to change. Right now, they are mostly being designed with functionality in mind, and once all of that is completed the art team will be redesigning the aesthetics and overlook look/feel as they see it appropriate.
Other Fixes and Improvements
The lead programmer optimized the game's file structure when packaged so that the patching process is a bit faster/more consistent for new updates on Steam, among some other miscellaneous fixes and tweaks. He also finished up the first iteration of mod support that was included in the last SDK release.
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Thanks for checking out our update for September! I apologize for getting the last two devblogs out so late in the month—next month I will be aiming towards releasing the October updates during the first half of November, so I anticipate another devblog will be out not much longer after this one is posted.
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