Hello Drakelings!
Welcome to the twenty-fifth devblog for Operation: Harsh Doorstop. In this update, we will be reviewing the work that the team completed in the month of August 2022.
I would like to start off this month’s devblog with a brief note on our plans for the next update, and then we will jump into the recap of work completed last month. Right now our tentative plan is to push the next update with all of the improvements that we have been showing off lately sometime in early October (and yes this includes an update to the SDK). There are still a few things we were hoping to get done before releasing this update, but it has been awhile since the last one, and we want to get that out to you all so we can start picking back up on Patreon playtest events and so everyone can enjoy the latest work. Some of the more major items this patch will include (but is not limited to):
- AI improvements—better grouping behavior, better vision capabilities, the ability for the AI to switch to and use grenades (frag+smoke) and grenade/rocket launchers, the ability to join player created squads (although the method to do this is a bit janky at the moment as it involves using console commands to accomplish, and all they do is follow you around)
- Vaulting—the first iteration of our vaulting/mantling system will be in this update. This does not include sprint-to-vault, or mantling just yet (those systems will require some more work), but you will be able to freely vault up onto and over basic obstacles around shin to mid/upper torso height with relative ease
- Main menu UI improvements—expanded keybind options, rework of menu navigation and several pages, and a few more options for singleplayer matches
- Third person animation improvements—exactly what it sounds like: changes to the third person movement animations that will make the character's torso more active and less rigid (see the section towards the end of the devblog for examples)
- Audio overhaul—the beginning/start of our audio overhaul and improvements. We still have a very long way to go with audio, but the first sounds (field-based audio reflection captures) will be in this next update. After we complete the field sounds, we still have to do forest, urban, and indoor reflection captures (reflection captures being how the audio actually bounces off the environment), and then the programmer still needs to create the audio switching functionality that will allow for these sounds to actually change 0LMPA based on where you are located (i.e. firing your gun while walking from inside of a building to outside into urban city streets). Beyond that we will still have to rework the audio on everything that is not firearm related, such as grenades, gear, footsteps, etc. This should be a rather large improvement over the current placeholder gun sounds though!
- Server browser improvements—rework of the browser layout and server filter system
- Building interiors—most of the buildings on Risala and Khafji now have interior scenes. We still have many more left to do, but these maps should start to feel a lot more detailed and lived in, as well as provide a good example of how we will be detailing the interiors of buildings for other maps
- Various optimizations and bug fixes
Yes, this update will also be pushed to the Singleplayer Demo!
Now onto the August recap:
Maps
Risala and Khafji
Risala and Khafji received further work on building interiors (I am combining 3FH53 these maps since they share many of the same buildings), as well as more experimentation with lighting layers:
Risala lighting layers, and RDDNJ additional hard cover/fighting positions in the roads
Khafji lighting layers
Building interior scenes features in buildings on Risala and Khafji
Upcoming and WIP Features
Keybinds Expansion
At long last our expanded keybinds options are now in! This means that you will now be able to rebind things like ADS (complete with choices for hold/toggle), secondary sights, point shooting, changing rate of fire, and so on. We do hope to further expand these options in the future to allow for more complex 0LN9L keybinds (such as allowing modifiers and complex combinations of keys), but this should be a good start.
Third Person Animation Improvements
Our third person animator has been continuing the work on our third person animations, this time 6YMPF focusing more on the upper body now that we have improvements done to the lower body:
The GIFs above are more specifically IR3T3 showing off some of our changes to the ADS system in third person (the character will now lean with their torso into the weapon to brace for recoil), as well as some changes to upper body movement while the character is walking/sprinting.
These have already been much more refined/improved in September (more to come next devblog), but this should give everyone a better idea of what we are doing to improve the third person animations and make the character's torso more active and less rigid.
Bots/AI
Most of the work on the bots/AI in August was put towards fixing a bad bug that we had where the AI would just stop working (mainly related to the new grouping system). The rest was all about AI vision/aiming and accuracy, and finishing up the work on their vision update. As mentioned in the intro, work also 0LP5C began on AI being able to use equipment/items like grenades and launchers (the first iteration of this should be in the next update—there is still a lot of work to go there, but the basic functionality does work so far).
Vaulting and Mantling
Further refinement and polish was done to the vaulting system to make it feel a lot more fluid and 97QXF responsive:
UI Overhaul
The main menu UI overhaul/revamp was further worked on:
We now have a first iteration of the home page where you will see how badges will be displayed to show supporters and owners of the expansion content that will be offered, links to our various pages, and so on. The multiplayer server browser now utilizes the same layout as the singleplayer menu, complete with a basic filter system and space to display basic server info. The options menu will also be utilizing this layout, and should be quick and easy to navigate. Last but not least, we have also added in the first pass on the credits page, which is where the developers, contributors, and all of the Patreon founders will be displayed (definitely not Lucas though).
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Thanks for checking out the devblog! QAWYV
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