Hello everyone!

It’s that time again: November is half way over and like most of you, we are looking forward to the upcoming holiday season. But we are not just talking about vacations, we are also looking forward to having Update 1.8.10 out in early December. That means you can spend some time during your holiday breaks exploring Turbine, the new map, and testing out the new weapons.

That’s right! The two new weapons that we announced previously will be coming in Update 1.8.10! They were originally planned to be included with Update 1.8.11, but we’ve been able to get them included earlier. More details on the guns and other details about the upcoming update can be found below in the Devs’ Desk.

Be sure to also check out the Community Center to see the winners for our Onward Community Clips Contest as well as this month’s new custom maps. There are some great ones we think a lot of the community can relate to.

From The Devs’ Desk:
Last week we reached what we call ‘feature lock’: our internal deadline for submitting new features and content for an update, and have given the Update to our QA teams for testing. It is currently going through our internal QA team and will be set up for our Unit51 Beta testers to perform a closed beta test very soon.

As you may know, the first major addition to 1.8.10 will be the new map, Turbine. In our previous Sitreps we mentioned Turbine, the story behind it, and how it will differ from the Turbine some of you may recall from the 1.7 days. Today we want to show you never before seen images of what the map will look like so you can start developing strategies.





Frame-rate and performance are a major focus as we want to ensure a smooth experience when playing Onward; we shared details on some of our performance improvements in last month’s Sitrep. In addition to performance work you can look forward to the return of bHaptics support for the Quest and Quest 2. We have also made adjustments and improvements across all maps already included in the game.

Back to the new guns: for now we are continuing to keep the second gun under wraps. We do however want to give you more details on the MCX that was announced previously.

MCX VIRTUS
Class: Specialist
Caliber: .300 Blackout
Type of ammo: Subsonic
Rate of fire: 800 RPM
Barrel length: 6.75 Inches, with built-in suppressor

Created for the needs of special forces operators for operations behind enemy lines where, thanks to subsonic ammunition and an integrated suppressor, they guarantee the maximum flexibility in any condition. This weapon is chambered with .300 BLK rounds, which even if in subsonic configuration, guarantee excellent stopping power in the short to medium range.

Subsonic, specialized ammunition
.300 Blackout is a caliber with very high stopping power despite its subsonic character, and is frequently used by Special Forces around the world for this reason.

A unique weapon for Marsoc, with an integrated suppressor and a caliber new for Onward. This gives them a powerful additional weapon for close-range firefights. A perfect weapon for new tactical opportunities.





Community Center:
Our Clips contest has ended and we had some great videos sent in! A big thanks to everyone who sent submissions. Check out the winners and honorable mentions.

Cinematic - Submitted by Onward VR Legends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trXl3gphxec
Trailer - Submitted by Laurence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgR1fs9XAYg
Clips - Humor - Submitted by Charliedeets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWxhxJiWCiQ
Clips - Skill - Submitted by ReadyUpVR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8mjv6vZrlE
Clips - Hype - Submitted by TeaVR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZYtxk3Dgfs

Honorable Mentions:
Raptors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyau6Sac8uA
TeaVR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yb5iCHRDoE

New Custom Maps Released
Community member Mantis has some great videos displaying our custom maps and highlighting some great gameplay on them. Make sure to take some time and take a look at all the different types of environments you can play in, in addition to the core game mode maps.
https://youtu.be/eM4aykVKWCQ
https://youtu.be/Xuz8Vu-VmNQ
https://youtu.be/PLDRgbLT_6g


If you are interested in getting into mapmaking join our Discord and head to the Custom Maps channels. There are lots of helpful members and documents to start you in the right direction toward building environments in Onward. Discord.gg/Onward

Now, onto the newly released custom maps!

Warzone 2047 (PC) By Siubakyeung
The Volk army seizes the secret base in the snow mountain in an attempt to destroy the world. The MARSOC was ordered to stop.


Shelter: (Quest/PC) by Gridder
During an international exercise MARSOC have been in exercises with local Finnish forces around urban ops. During one of these VOLK are uncovered as this causes MARSOC with other exercising SF forces to take back control of the bunker system.


Runway - Night: (PC/Quest) by Tatoskok
Volk has intercepted plans of a VIP visit to a remote MARSOC airfield and has launched their attack! Secure the warheads, protect the classified intelligence, and rescue the VIP!


Arctic - Night: (PC/Quest) by Heclak
The Arctic Research Labs have created an outpost in an undisclosed location in the Arctic region.


Sand - Night: (PC/Quest) by Koiz
MARSOC has been deployed to this small village to restore freedom and root out the Volk cell rumored to be hiding there.


This is the end for this Sitrep. Keep looking out for more info on our social media pages.

Stay Frosty!

Happy Hauntings Everyone!

We are releasing our October Sitrep a bit early so we can get you an update on everything we have been working on. We didn’t release a September Sitrep because our focus was on getting the patch 1.8.10 launched. However, after evaluation of the feedback we received from players and our own QA testers, we decided to give Update 1.8.10 a bit more time in the oven to tackle some community needs including a big focus on the overall performance of the game. Taking on this work has shifted priorities across multiple departments and changed estimated release times on some of the features we previously stated. For more details on the current feature schedule please keep reading.

From The Devs Desk:
With the concerns surrounding the frame rate and performance that were brought up when reviewing Update 1.8.10, we wanted to make sure we took the time to listen and investigate the concerns the community had. The team has taken the time and is working hard on improving these issues. Here is a deep dive from our lead programmer:

“Hello everybody, I'm the lead programmer on Onward, and I want to share some insights into our recent programming work. Today, I’ll be going over our issue with the frame rate of Onward and why we’re taking extra time to improve it. To the dismay of our community manager, this is a larger technical topic so I have broken it up into a few different parts that you can jump to.

What does frame rate mean for Onward?
First, frame rate is very important when it comes to VR as lower frame rates can make you feel sick because your movements in game don’t match your movements in real life, throwing off your balance.

One of our main goals in Onward is to make sure that you, the player, feel comfortable while playing the game, so you can keep playing until you want to stop instead of when you have to stop from nausea. We have spent a lot of time on our systems to prevent motion sickness. For example a lot of design went into making sure the movement system doesn't throw you off balance. Frame rate plays a key role in your comfort and therefore earns priority at the top of our development to-do list.

Why has Onward's frame rate decreased?
The main reason our frame rate decreased over time has been the addition of new features and large changes. New features almost always come with an additional cost to run, so this extra cost needs to be offset with additional performance improvements in other areas of the game.

What are the steps to begin improving Onward's frame rate?
To improve the frame rate in Onward we have had to tackle the problem from several different directions. Our starting point is to profile the game. In the code we can identify code that is taking too long to run, code being run too frequently, and code that is high impact because it runs all the time.

After we’ve identified the problem areas in the code we can go through and try to improve them. We generally start with trying to improve performance by simplifying code and caching data for quicker retrieval. If simplifying the code and caching aren’t enough, then we have to take more drastic approaches such as replacing the code faster or removing functionality. Removing functionality is a last resort.

What have we been working on to improve Onward's frame rate?
I’ll provide a few examples out of the many parts of code we worked on during the performance improvements instead of going into more general explanations of how to approach performance improvements.

First, our projectile system was creating new bullets instead of reusing pre-existing ones in situations with heavy gunfire. The creation of new objects is expensive, so to prevent this we try to create objects before we need them. When we create objects we try to hide the frame rate drop they cause with loading screens. We then try to reuse the objects when possible as reusing is much cheaper than creating.

Another one of our major wins was bringing in a new system to turn off objects that could not be seen so we were rendering fewer objects at any one time. The system used for this is called occlusion culling. We had been using a Unity occlusion culling system which was expensive on the CPU and sometimes cost more performance than it saved. To fix this, one or our programmers wrote a new occlusion culling system that runs really quickly at the cost of extra memory usage over CPU use. This helped bring down costs on both the CPU as it had less calculations and the GPU as it now has fewer objects to render.

The examples above just scratch the surface of the work that has gone into the performance improvement work but we hope give you a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes.

Until next time, here is a fun bug QA caught that was caused by an optimization to the bipods.”


In addition to the performance improvements, the extra dev time gave us the ability to include the return of bHaptics to Quest users in 1.8.10. This feature is currently in testing and is looking good to return sooner than we previously stated. Also expect major bug fixes such as Abandoned spawn locations, AI walking through walls on several maps, and updates to spectator mode.

Turbine Day and Night will release with 1.8.10. Some changes including spawn points and environment adjustments have been made to the map based on feedback from our Unit51 playtests. Previous images may not reflect some of these changes, but we will be showing off Turbine on our social media soon.

We continue to work on the two new weapons and the gun stock calibration we mentioned in our August sitrep. If everything lines up, we are trying to have them included into the 1.8.11 Update. Update 1.8.11 was originally slated to include AI animation improvements, but we’re working hard to get more animations included. We’ll keep you updated as we continue to work toward this future patch release.

Our long-term development goals remain unchanged. These projects include the Party system, Friends system, and AI gameplay improvements.

Community Center:
Last Thursday we launched our Onward Community Clips contest. We’re excited to see your creativity and the different ways you enjoy the game. There are prizes for multiple categories and themes in the contest. For all the details on categories, prizes, and official rules for entry, check out the details here.

Custom maps are back and new ones are now available, which leads us to this month's community member spotlight. Tatoskok has submitted two new amazing maps for the month of October, one of which is perfect for the October spooky season.

Graveyard, by community member Tatoshok
MARSOC SIGINT intercepted Volk communications coming from a remote region of Transylvania. A permanent layer of dense fog obscures satellite imagery requiring aerial drones to provide coverage. Prepare your fireteam for impaired visibility and perform a reconnaissance to discover what the Volk cell is hiding. The region is well known for roaming packs of feral wolves.




The Streets, by community member Gridder
A recent attack in NYC by Volk has caused major chaos all around but the city has been put in lockdown. Due to the area the only way to counter this is to send a MARSOC to deal with Volk in pretence of being national guard.


That’s the Spookiness for this month, Stay Frosty!

Next time you're out on the battlefield make sure to bring your camera with you! 🎥
Prizes will be awarded for a variety of different categories. 🏆

Check out all the Details on the Official Contest Page:
https://onwardthegame.com/clipscontest2021

Hello Everyone!

August flew by, and it's a big milestone for Onward: earlier in the week we celebrated our 5th anniversary since our first release on Steam! Now, let’s jump right into things! Last week we released Patch 1.8.9.1 to address an issue with the Workshop. Custom maps are a big feature in Onward and we corrected the issue as fast as we could with a hotfix. If you are still experiencing issues with the Workshop, please make sure you update to 1.8.9.1.

It’s been a little over a month since the release of Update 1.8.9. We continue to receive positive feedback about the new weapons interactions, Abandoned Map, and we’ve even seen mini games being made using the Dolphin in Abandoned free roam.

With 1.8.9 in the rear-view mirror, the path in front of us includes the return of another map and new features the community has been asking for. Read on for more details on what’s coming.

From The Devs' Desk
Our next update will be 1.8.10. The focus will be on the re-release of the map Turbine. PC players will remember this large map with its long-range firefights on top of the hydroelectric dam, and the close quarters combat in its many below ground-level floors. This map will also bring back some unique elements, such as working elevators. Buildings have been added to the surface of the dam, which has also been redesigned to feature a curved road, allowing for new, semi-covered approaches. Also included in 1.8.10 are continued adjustments for the Quest 2 audio.






1.8.11 will follow the 1.8.10 update and is shaping up to include improved animations and performance. The first animation improvements that will roll out is to the AI in Co-op mode. The major joints for bots have been tackled and updated, including better wrists and knees. They will bend better making their overall movement look more realistic. We are also working on adding the ability to vote kick players during matches using the tablet. Finally, we are hoping to reimplement bHaptics support for Quest users in this update as well.

If you have been reading the previous sitreps, you know that we are working on big features for the future like a friends and party system and AI gameplay improvements. This month we have some new features to talk about! We will be starting development on a completely new map, gunstock calibration, and two new weapons. We can reveal one of the new weapons will be the SIG MCX and we will reveal the second new weapon at a later time.


Photo by Mike Searson*

Community Center
Last weekend VRML wrapped up Season 11 for Onward. Congratulations to Raptors for placing 1st! Beginners came in 2nd, Vikings in 3rd, and Peacekeepers in 4th. There were some great matches with some great plays throughout the games. We are looking forward to seeing the start of season 12. If you would like to watch the reply of the semi-finals and finals, head over to YouTube: Semi-Finals https://youtu.be/mM6RFQFFJDw Finals https://youtu.be/NKhLL1FN6DI

Custom Maps:
Currently, there is a known issue with being able to upload and update custom maps. We are working on this and hope to have a fix soon. This adjustment shouldn’t require an update to the game, so keep an eye out on our social media and Discord for this fix to be announced.

We have the pedal to the metal moving into September and have a lot of things we are working on. Keep an eye out for the 1.8.10 release and as always, Stay Frosty.



*CC-BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Hi everyone!

Today we have released a hotfix to address an issue that caused the Workshop area of the game to no longer function properly. A fix for the related issue where custom map makers are no longer able to upload new maps or update existing maps is coming soon, but will not require a patch for the game.

We are still looking into an issue that causes a small number of Oculus Home users to not be able to launch the game. Please contact our support team if you’re facing issues launching the game through Oculus Home (PC).

The patch to address the Workshop issue is available now, and will download automatically to your device.

Stay frosty!

Hello again, everyone!

Today features the release of Onward version 1.8.9! We’ve already seen a lot of community excitement around this patch since we released the trailer on Monday. The headlines for this update include new gun interactions in the form of speed reloads, HK slaps, and slide locks, and the redesigned Abandoned, with day and night versions available. We also included some bug fixes and game adjustments. For a detailed list of changes, be sure to review the changelog below.


Gear up, team.

A Marine recon mission was cut short when a Chinook transporting MARSOC Raiders was shot down over an unmapped area. Survivors are believed to be held up near an abandoned industrial complex, and intelligence has confirmed a strong Volk presence moving into the area following the crash.

This is gonna be a large area of operation surrounded by lots of trees, rocks, and hills which we can use as cover for our approach. Once we reach the compound, expect to engage the enemy in close quarters. Command has also given us the option of using flanking routes on the outskirts of the AO. We’ll also be up against snipers hiding in tall buildings -- some repurposed, abandoned apartments -- so be careful. We should consider having a designated Marksman to counter them.

Move out!

An ode to OceanDolf

We’ve added a toy dolphin to the map for you to find. The dolphin is the favorite animal of a very beloved community member, OceanDolf, who passed away in 2021. Not only was she a member of the player community and a part of the VRML, but also she was a valued member of the QA team here at Downpour.

Her joy and laugh was infectious and she was an absolute delight to work and play with. If you had the pleasure of being on her team you were a cub to her “Mama bear” personality. She swore by the MK18 and was one of the people most passionate about Onward. She will be missed dearly. The dolphin toy is a way for her memory to live on and continue to be a part of the community she devoted so much time and love to.

New Gun Interactions

Speed Reload
HK Slap
Slide Locks

Changelog

System

• Slightly reduced the weapon's quietest volume setting to help with people's feedback about volume being too loud for Quest
  
• Fixed an issue that was causing the game to not to launch from SteamVR for some players

Gameplay

• Increased the limit of players on a single team to 10 in Free Roam and Shooting Range
  
• Fixed an issue with broken lobbies going into “Waiting for player” mode
  
• Fixed dead players having downed player symbol next to their name in tent if they leave mid-round and rejoin
  
• Sidearm beyond the first (i.e., silencer, laser sight) will display in the correct location in the equipment section of the loadout
  
• Downed MARSOC player can no longer type code into their tablet
  
• Downed players will now count as kills at the end of the round
  
• Fixed issue where if a player leaves a lobby they were in as a caster, they will cause the first round of any lobby they subsequently host to be un-endable
  
• Fixed bug where if you put your gun inside an object or a wall and release the trigger hand your left hand gets teleported away from your body
  
• Fixed an issue with the kill house on Shooting Range killing the player in certain areas
  
• While wearing spectator goggles, you can now see players on minimap
  
• After loading into another map the Caster is now able to change scores properly
  
• Fixed the +/- controls not cycling through players in caster mode
  
• Fixed player usernames not appearing in First Person Perspective while casting

Maps

• Shooting Range (Day & Night) spawning in the table has been fixed
  
• Some areas in shooting rage have been adjusted to not allow players to clip through unintended areas
  
• Graphic adjustments throughout several maps have been made to fix fighting/collision issues, player/item pass through, cross-platform inaccuracies
  
• One in the Chamber player spawn points have been adjusted so players are a lot less likely to spawn on top of each other during the match
  
• Fixed Helicopter landing error in Subway that was causing round to not end
  
• Fixed soft lock issue in Basic Training by expending all bullets and magazines in the M16 before the step to hold the front grip
  
• Fixed ramp in Bazaar being walkable by building corner on the side of the scaffolding
  
• Fixed players being able to climb on top of the tank inside the Northeast garage allowing the player to clip their head into the roof on Snowpeak
  
• Several wall and surface bugs fixed on Subway
  
• Changed the end of Subway tunnels to now have fallen metal walls to give you a better idea of how far you are able to walk into the tunnels as well as giving the background a brighter color to prevent hiding in the dark tunnels
  
• Uplink spawns are adjusted on Subway
  
• Adjusted a MARSOC spawn on Downfall
  
• Moved a blue cargo container on Cargo to increase visual occlusion from both sides
  
• Fixed Custom Content ammo boxes not spawning

Weapons and Utilities

• Addition of HK Slap for G3, G3 auto, MP5
  
• Addition of Paddle Release style Speed Reload for 552, AK12, AKM, AKS74U, VAL, G36C, G3, SVD, M39
  
• Addition of slide locks to weapons: Beretta, Glock, M1911, Makarov, TT-33, Five-SeveN, M16A4, MK16, MK17, AK5C, MK18, AUG, L86, Benelli M4, G3A3, G3 Auto, TAR-21, G36C, SKS, SPAS-12
  
• Improved the scope lenses for PC by showing a slight reflection on the lens
  
• Fixed guns floating when joining in progress games

Known Issues

• The red-dot sight on the MP5 is slightly mis-aligned, and the bullet will hit slightly below the centre pip
  
• In Co-Op on Abandoned, host can sometimes spawn on Helicopter
  
• Issue with items floating on Downfall
  
• In Operations, when host changes, game mode cannot be changed until new host enters loadout screen
  
• On Bazaar (Day and Night) the AI sometimes spawn out of bounds
  
• Downed players at end of the round will not count towards deaths

Happy July, Everyone!

Let’s start this month’s sitrep with the good stuff: update 1.8.9 is currently being reviewed in Unit 51, and will soon land on your devices! We are working hard to make sure all the new features are polished and in the best condition for release.

From The Devs' Desk

Update 1.8.8 introduced some much needed backend stability to the game, room for growth, and helped set us up for future projects. Some game adjustments that were made in 1.8.8 received some passionate community feedback and we wanted to address two major concerns players have. Number 1, we have reviewed the audio and made adjustments to the Quest audio so it is closer to the sound profiles and settings for PCVR. Some of these changes will be coming in Update 1.8.9, and some will follow after. Number 2, Freeroam and Shooting Range maps will no longer have a 5-person limit on teams, meaning that you will be able to have up to 10 players on one team in these game modes. We also learned that a small number of SteamVR players weren’t able to launch the game successfully, and we managed to fix this issue in Update 1.8.9.

In our last Sitrep we introduced two new weapons interactions that will be coming to 1.8.9. The HK Slap and Speed Reload, and the community had an overwhelmingly positive response. We are happy to share that we have added a third new interaction: the ability to manually lock back the slide/bolt for firearms that support this function.
https://onwardthegame.com/img/Devblog/july2021/SlideLock.mp4

If you have been keeping up with our dev blogs and social media, you have seen the story and images behind Abandoned. One new item that will also be coming to Abandoned is an Easter egg in memory of a beloved Onward community member and QA team member. For the details behind the addition of this item, check the patch notes that will be coming upon the release of the 1.8.9 update.

After the release of Update 1.8.9, we will be quickly jumping to the development of Patch 1.8.10. The update will feature the release of Turbine day and night maps. Additional features that we are looking forward to releasing with it are new animations and a tent upgrade.

We continue to work on our next major game features such as Shadowmask Lighting to improve graphics on PC, a party system, and a ranking system. One bit of detail we can start to share is that the first iteration of the ranking system is looking to comprise of 20 ranks and 10 prestiges based on things such as kills, death, heals, objectives, matches played, and other game stats. Be ready to start moving up the ranks and look out for more details in future Sitreps.

Hot off the LED screen we have new artwork for you! We had some beautiful new wallpapers for you to show off your passion for Onward. The Fan Supply Drop provides HD wallpaper art for your PC and mobile screens. To get these wallpapers download the Fan Supply Drop from our website.

July’s Community Spotlight is F.lapinski. You may have seen him wrecking people in VRML matches, or maybe you have played on some of his custom maps. Now he has an even bigger project he’s working on. F.lapinski has created a charity group where he is going to be running tournaments to help Veterans. He is partnering up with Veteran charity Stack Up* who help eliminate extreme symptoms of trauma, stress, and isolation of military service members past and present. Stack Up is bringing vets together through the "shared language" of gaming. For more information on this tournament group please check out our Discord.

New community-made custom maps added:
OIL DEPOT DAY/NIGHT by F.Lapinski: Conflict arises across the globe. Espionage indicates that there is Volk activity near Chudtsy, Russia conducting possible illegal oil depot operations. At this time marsoc are deployed to take down this operation.

DRY RUN by Beikenost: An asset flip map set in the Middle East.

THE HOOK 2.0 by Evolution: A collection of nostalgic pirates who can't let go of the past have managed to plunder a modern-day weapons payload. Your team needs to get in there and shut them down. This is no longer bringing guns to a sword fight.

Make sure to go to the Workshop in game to check out and play on these new additions.

Introductions
Downpour has some new additions to our team! You may know these two from the community or played with them on the battlefield. Novius (Brian) has joined the programming side of Onward and Monorchid (Joel) has joined level design.

Things are starting to heat up, make sure you Stay Frosty!



*Facebook has partnered with Stack Up in the past

Hello everyone!

The long awaited update 1.8.8 is here! This update features a rewrite of key game systems to make the game more stable and future-proof, so that we can build on a better foundation going forward. The rewrite includes areas of the code that control player lobbies, game modes, and many other aspects of the game. We’ve included only a selection of bugs and changes in the changelog: over a hundred bugs have been fixed in this update and some new content has made it in as well.

Night Time Shooting Range
Are you ready to prepare for night time operations with your fire team? The new night version of the Shooting Range will allow you to train your skills in the dark. When setting up for Shooting Range in single player or multiplayer, you will now be able to choose a day or night setting.




Audio Systems
The second major change to feature in this update is further improvements to the audio systems. We’ve rebalanced our audio volumes, we’ve improved the way volume decreases over distance and we’ve added new sounds for footsteps and a selection of weapons, with more to come in the future.

Video of Sound Updates

We’ve included a more detailed changelog below. Stay on the lookout for 1.8.9 in the coming weeks!

-- Changelog
Audio

• Added verification steps to check for correct settings
  
• Audio volumes rebalanced
  
• Audio attenuation distances tweaked
  
• Custom global audio can now use the indoor/outdoor ducking system
  
• Added new Custom Content audio events

Gameplay

• Fixed a bug where if players drew a lot on the whiteboard the game could crash on Oculus Quest
  
• Fixed several instances of lobbies crashing and kicking players back to the main menu
  
• Fixed an issue in Uplink where the round would sometimes not end after the Uplink was sent successfully
  
• Forgive or Punish buttons for team killing have been moved to the tent, allowing players more time to punish team killers
  
• Removed a small rogue collider around players’ necks that could unintentionally block bullets
  
• Evac choppers’ landing locations have been adjusted slightly so they are more easily accessible
  
• Bushes in Suburbia Day have been adjusted so that visibility is more consistent between the PC and Quest versions of Onward
  
• Quest players can no longer spawn on dead fire team leaders after pausing the game through the Oculus menu
  
• Collision boxes for the trucks on Shooting Range have been adjusted so players can no longer get stuck
  
• Fixed an issue where some players were returned to the menu after completing Basic Training, instead of moving them on to Intermediate Training
  
• Fixed several collision issues leading to inconsistent or incorrect results

Weapon & Utilities

• Fixed a number of issues where objects would be incorrectly blocked or visible in front of or behind smoke grenades
  
• When ejecting magazine from gun, velocity of gun is now taken into account
  
• C4 can now be deactivated by fire from a Molotov cocktail
  
• Fixed an issue where if the player had C4 and a Molotov cocktail on their vest and the Molotov was shot the C4 would float mid-air
  
• Fixed an issue with the MP5 where the bolt could not be closed after emptying a magazine
  
• Fixed an issue where grenades could do damage through solid floors
  
• Fixed an issue where the gun sight would float above the MK18 in the tent if the M203 grenade launcher was equipped to the gun
  
• Fixed RPG rocket fins sticking out on Quest
  
• Fixed an issue where players could shoot through the Riot Shield if it was in a lowered position

Custom Content
Released a new custom content sdk: v2.0.9
https://onwardthegame.com/doc/OnwardCustomContent_SDK_v2.0.9.unitypackage
Updated the Custom Content Guide
https://onwardthegame.com/doc/CustomContentGuide.pdf
Updated the Custom Content Lightmapping Guide
https://onwardthegame.com/doc/OnwardLightmapping101.pdf

Known Issues

• Players will sometimes spawn inside the table in the Shooting Range day and night maps
  
• We’ve temporarily removed support for bHaptics vests for Oculus Quest and Quest 2 users
  
• Oculus players may encounter a black screen (audio can still be heard) when loading in or out of the tent. Restarting your game will fix this issue
  
• One evac zone in Subway still needs to be adjusted to be able to complete the game mode
  
• When playing One in the Chamber, multiple players can spawn on top of each other

Hello Everyone!

As you may have guessed when we announced that we were joining Oculus Studios back in late April it’s been a crazy month of May for us. It was heartwarming to see the largely positive response to the news! We, like you, are excited for what this means and the future opportunities we will have. That's for the future, back to current events: we've been working on 1.8.8 for a long time, and we're excited to get it into your hands very soon. The release of 1.8.8 also clears the path for more frequent updates with more content and new features for you to enjoy.

From The Devs’ Desk
To give a quick recap and update of the roadmap we set out in the previous sitrep: Update 1.8.8 is coming out soon, and we’re currently tackling the final list of issues before we send a build over to Unit 51 for testing and ultimately release it to you. Update 1.8.8 will focus on a rewrite of key game systems to make them future-proof and increase their stability so that we can build on them going forward. On top of that, Update 1.8.8 includes a night version of the shooting range map and a lot of bug fixes, including a fix for the crash on Quest that happens when there is too much writing on the white board.

After 1.8.8 is released, we intend to release two more updates in quick succession: update 1.8.9 will feature the Abandoned map in both day and night variants, and Update 1.8.10 will see the release of the Turbine map, also in day and night variants.

As Abandoned is coming together we want to share a few teaser images with you.

Abandoned is situated in a Siberian forest close to a lake. With several Soviet-era buildings and factories, VOLK has repurposed these facilities in order to assemble weapons and vehicles. A MARSOC Chinook has been shot down and looted by VOLK militia. With months’ worth of gathered intelligence, MARSOC is well prepared for an offense to take out this facility. A recon mission was cut short when a Chinook transporting MARSOC troops was shot down over an unmapped forest. The remaining Marines have gathered near an abandoned industrial complex. Intelligence has confirmed VOLK forces in the area.






But that’s not all to look forward to: although we’re not sure yet if it’ll be ready in time for 1.8.9 or if it will be released with 1.8.10, we are working on improving our weapon systems, adding the ability to perform an HK slap and speed reloads for weapons that realistically support such specific interactions. At the same time, we will also remove bolt release buttons from weapons such as the MP5 which do not have these features in real life. A full list of what guns will be getting these features will be made in the patch notes when the feature is released.

HK-Slap
Speed-reload

Our plans for the longer term also remain unchanged: we’ll be working on Shadowmask Lighting to improve graphics on PC, all new and improved animations for characters, a friends and party system to quickly join up in a game with the people you want to play with, and a progression system to keep an eye on your battlefield performances! It’s a bit early to talk about any of these in detail, but definitely keep an eye on future Sitreps for the juicy details.

Community Center
Summer Fun is coming! We are gearing up for a Summer Community Contest so be on the lookout for more details soon.

This month we want to highlight a member of our community, SGT SCRUFF, who has been providing some fun Onward videos on his YouTube channel. Not only does he highlight some great sniper shots and gameplay, but some great moments within their community of players. This video in particular gave us a few laughs.

We have a couple new custom maps that have been added to the workshop area as well.

Offshore Platform by Tatoskok
Volk has seized a deepwater offshore drilling rig! MARSOC must take back control of the facility. Failure will result in the long term disruption to the world's energy supply.

Paradise by Koiz
MARSOC has been deployed to this South American town to remove a Volk cell and restore freedom.


That's it for May's Sitrep, and as always: stay frosty!