Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the nineteenth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of February 2022.
First up, I would like to reiterate the plans for the singleplayer demo that we have coming up: on March 30th a singleplayer demo will become available for everyone to download (completely free). To clarify (since this seems to be a point of confusion for some people) this will be SINGLEPLAYER only, NOT multiplayer—this means you will be able to do everything that you could in the normal game, just with bots only. The demo will include all of the maps, factions, weapons, and so on. No, this is NOT the release into early access (this also seems to be a point of confusion for some people), this is just a demo—we are still very much in a pre-alpha/prototype phase of the game, and we have a lot of work to do before we start thinking about an early access release.
Don’t forget you can still sign up for the multiplayer playtest sessions on the Steam page for O:HD, but please keep in mind that we have not begun accepting anybody into this yet. Once the demo comes out, we will be revisiting our internal roadmap and path towards these playtest sessions, and we will keep everyone posted on how that will work. At the time of writing this devblog, we have just passed 70,000 signups.
In addition to the singleplayer demo release, we will also be doing a major update to the modding tools/SDK around the same time. YES, mods will work with the singleplayer demo! This will be a great time for people who have been modding the game already, or that have been thinking about getting into modding to download the SDK and start/pick back up on projects that they may have already been working on.
Post Demo Release Plans
Once the singleplayer demo is released, we have a few large plans/milestones that we will be shifting our focus to:
- Optimization/Bug Fixing/Polish Phase: We will be spending some much needed time fixing up some of the outstanding bugs and optimization issues that have been accumulating over the past year or so. While the team has been working on getting the singleplayer demo prepared, we have had a QA team in the background going through the game with a fine tooth comb and logging all of the bugs and issues that they could find in JIRA. This will put us in a great place moving forward, as it will further stabilize and solidify the foundation upon which the whole framework and game are built.
- Warfare 1944: Yes, that’s right, the time has finally come to give Warfare a major update to catch it up to speed with the work that we have done on OHDcore. This will include large features like bots/AI and all of the other major and critical work that has been done to the underlying framework in this time. This does not mean that work on O:HD will stop. We understand that some people believe Warfare has been abandoned, but we assure you it has not—we are still moving forward with exactly the same plan and setup that we have had since day 1: nothing has really changed since the first reveal stream that Bluedrake did back in 2020, or that we have discussed on Warfare devblogs in the past. We know things have taken longer than some people think they should, however, we are doing the best that we can with the resources that we have at our disposal. Sometimes these things just take longer than initially anticipated, and there is not a whole lot we can do about that at this point in time. We appreciated those of you who have been patient and stuck with us throughout this process.
- Preparing Next Features and Planning for the Multiplayer Playtests: Once the singleplayer demo is released, we will be moving on to figure out what the next major features and content that we will work on are. Bots/AI will for certain be a huge focus for us, and we have a lot of plans for expanding and improving what they are capable of doing, so you can expect to see work continue there in full force. Other major features that we have discussed in the past that we could potentially shift to working on include, but are not limited to, vehicles, a medical system overhaul, weapon customization, character customization, and more. In addition, as mentioned above, we will also be revisiting our plan towards starting our larger multiplayer playtest sessions. There are still a few things that we want to complete pertaining to servers, admin tools, hosting options, and so on before we start accepting people into those, but it should be a great time once we start. We will keep everyone posted on our post-demo plans as soon as we have more information!
Expansions
Character Model Variations
Character variations for all of the classes/kits across all of the current factions in the game/expansions are now completed!
They are all still awaiting implementation, however, they should be in for the singleplayer demo. This (on top of the voice lines) will add a nice amount of variety to help spice up gameplay sessions, and will be a great holdover until we have a more proper character customization system in place.
Operation: Invictus
The modeling team created a G36 (primarily for use in the Invictus expansion but of course this can ultimately be used anywhere):
Some stylized shots of the new PMC and Insurgent character model variations showing them in more detail:
Miscellaneous gear that we showed off in past devblogs and have since been completed (and some new stuff):
Maps
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino received a major visual, landscape, and foliage overhaul:
A wind effect was also included on this map:
Khafji
Khafji received more hard cover and further detailing to some of the more sparse areas on the map:
Lam Dong
Lam Dong also received updates to foliage, hard cover, and lighting overall:
Risala
Risala also received a similar treatment as the other maps—more foliage, hard cover, detailing, and so on:
Training Grounds
Training Grounds got a small update to its lighting:
Objects, Models, and Textures
Scope Picture
Some improvements were made to the overall look of the magnified optics/scopes (such as adding in a slight chromatic aberration effect to the outer ring of the picture):
There are still some outstanding bugs and performance issues with the scopes, but overall they should be quite smooth and clear.
Bullet Casings
All of the models of the bullet casings for the various calibers we currently have in the game were completed:
4.6x30mm, 8×50mmR Lebel, 9×18mm Makarov, 0ARD9-ACEAX-K98DD, and .30 Carbine
Upcoming and WIP Features
Bots/AI
In February, the AI programmer primarily worked on the first iteration for the voiceover callouts for the bots. There are a few types of callouts that they will do now: contact/lost contact, reloading, under suppression, and being hit. We also have a few mechanics in place to make sure that the bots don't talk too much or out of context. As usual, this feature is still very early/WIP, and we have a lot more planned for it including, but not limited to, expanding the pool of possible voice lines for them to choose from (i.e. from different voice actors), further improving on their call out relevance and making sure they use proper dialogue in the right scenarios, and so on.
Vehicles
A simple infantry vehicle implementation was worked on:
Vehicles are still very WIP, and these models are mainly blockout/placeholder and will be replaced with higher quality assets in the future. This is mainly in preparation for a larger push into a proper implementation of vehicles in the future.
UI Overhaul
Work continued on the UI overhaul, and we are getting very close to completing this first pass of UI updates. The lead programmer finished up the in-game HUD UI with the newer text and voice chat designs, and finished the first iteration of the multiplayer server browser in the main menu:
Whoa! 2 people online! 0GNMF-K625H-H3IJ2
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Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the devblog—we look forward to releasing the singleplayer demo to everyone soon!
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