We’re so close I can taste it! That’s right, this week is the final Alpha of Update 52, meaning that next Friday, Update 52, the culmination of the several months of non-stop work rebuilding basically most of the game’s core systems, will release to the game’s main branch.
This week, Meat Grinder has gotten some much needed love. The mode now runs on my new Spawn-Table system, so as new guns get added to the game, they’ll automatically show up in MG (except the truly ridiculous/uber-powerful ones of course). Ammo is now slightly more plentiful, but guns themselves are a touch rarer, whereas before the balance was off in the direction of having tons of empty firearms, which always felt odd. Shotgun shells now spawn in wider varieties, mag fed shotguns appear, guns using clips and speedloaders appear, and even stuff like the new Contender can spawn with groups of 45-70 loose rounds. You’ll also find that melee weapons are more common spawns, which is especially helpful with the recent buff to Melee damage. Lastly, powerups now spawn, so for those of you who like to play Mode #2 in a ‘go as long as you can’ way, there’s now more opportunity to do so.
As mentioned in the video, this next week is going to _mostly_ be a big bug fixing push. PLEASE use the Steam Community bug report forum for issues you find. Once again I’d rather stick to functionality/breaking issues as highest priority right now, just to ensure the best experience for folks jumping from the last non-alpha update to this one. I can’t tell you how thankful I am for all the help you folks have given me through this long and arduous Alpha process.
Anywho, I’m going to jump back to it. Will be around as always though this evening. Let me know of how you like the new Meat Grinder feel!
Peace,
Anton
To Switch To The Alpha Branch: - Right Click H3VR in Steam and go to 'Properties' - Click on the 'Betas' tab - Click the dropdown and select 'Alpha 1'
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains - James 5:7
We know that waiting can be Hell, but your patience will soon pay off! Gray Dawn will be coming out this June on PC! You can finally experience the real and unreal universes of Gray Dawn and embark on the journey to help Father Abraham prove himself innocent.
Want to get further in the mood, watch our newest gameplay trailer now:
As promised in the last post, we'll be detailing our photo development process this week!
Players can take photos with a variety of different cameras in Hypatia, each camera with their own effects and qualities. Once you've taken the photo, what do you do with it?
Take your camera to the photography museum!
Thats a lot of buttons and dials! We wanted to create an in depth and satisfying process of developing photos.
The simpliest instructions
Insert camera
Select photo
Load your blank print
Open the lamp
Open the blocker
After a few seconds close the blocker, add chemicals and watch it develop right before your eyes!
But thats just the beginning. You can zoom, pan, and even color your photos. Try multiple exposures, or explosing different photos onto the same print!
Combine all of that with the various photography stations that help you setup nice shots for custom photos and you end up with such a variety of shots!
This duck is not blue, and its eyes are not gems, but they are in this expertly developed photograph!
This photo is out of this world good!
An interesting view of the skydome.
Underwater dinosaurs? Why not!
Come back next week for our biggest announcement yet, and the final release date revealed!
- Updated spawn points and drop off points for Southwest level. - All control keys based on letters can be remapped now in the settings section. - Tweaked when new servers open up when other ones are busy. Should make it easier to get into a server during busy times. - Fixed a bug that would turn fps display on/off when typing in chat. - Attempt to fix stuttering in latest Firefox 60. - Fixed self destruct (SHIFT + ENTER). - Removed Y to chat, only ENTER now. - Improved performance on Chrome and Safari. - Fixed slowdown on RUSSIA server. - Improved death cam when you die.
We’ve been doing regular and frequent testing during the progress of this patch, and despite its delays we feel incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and really think you guys will enjoy the new content and features, and of course the many, many bug fixes (seriously, scroll down and take a look!). We are aware of a few issues with the new update, and we are actively investigating the causes, but in the meantime we don’t want to keep you guys waiting any longer. We’ve decided to give you the update for the weekend on a preliminary basis, and will revert back to the previous version of the game on Monday. The reason for this is that we want to gauge community feedback and get a consensus on the direction we’re taking the game, and how it performs. In the very near future, we do of course intend on releasing it for good, we just want to tweak some things and improve performance to a state we’re happy with.
If anyone has problems on this build (we’re aware that there are occasional performance issues), they can swap back to v1.1 of the game using the Steam beta key ‘PreviousBuild2018’.
We also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the recent passing away of a beloved member of the Onward community, Austin Aiken (better known in the community as ‘Capptin’). We found out the news early yesterday and that Austin’s fiancé had started a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with their finances as a result of his passing. We are absolutely blown away by the generosity of our community on the fundraiser and we’re extremely proud to have such incredible people playing our game. As a tribute to Austin, we’re adding a small commemoration into the game, in the form of dog tags in the loadout tent. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Austin’s friends and family.
Featured Updates
New Map: Cargo We used to have a very different version of Tanker in the game, before our re-make of it. A lot of the community felt that the replacement wasn’t true to the original (given that the layout had drastically changed. We heard the feedback, and felt it was a good time bring that layout back with an improved location and lighting, so here’s Cargo!
New Map: Bazaar2 A night-time version of Bazaar, complete with lit up neon signs! It’s terrifying on Operations.
Lighting Improvements
All maps have had their lighting redone to take advantage of performance improvements and new Unity features. Notable improvements:
Improved specular lighting: metal objects, especially weapons, have a much more metallic look instead of the previous matte finish
Interior lighting for Downfall 1 & 2
Scope glint
Inventory Refactor
Ambidextrous! All pickups can be pickup up, dropped, swapped between hands and shared between players. Dominant hand no longer matters in determining which hand can grab what
Added Hold to Grip option! We highly recommend this for players using an Oculus Rift
You can hold two objects at the same time Not including primary or secondary weapons
Downed/dead AI and players drop all their pickups, and you can loot their dropped gear
Holstered grenades are now visible on other player vests
Interchangeable magazines: Some magazines can be inserted and fired from multiple weapons. Most Marsoc rifles use STANAG mags and will be interchangeable. Full list of mag support at the bottom of the patch notes
Some things you can now do:
You can grab and throw live smoke grenades
A teammate gets downed, you can pick up their syringe and revive them with it
Steal weapons and equipment from downed enemy combatants
Pull the pin on a grenade but leave the spoon attached, you can pass the grenade to your other hand or another player without the spoon flying off
You can keep your weapon out with one hand while you use your other hand to check your Tablet
You can put magazines in your holstered guns, other player’s holstered guns, or other player’s guns they are currently holding
In Escort, sacrifice your gear to get the VIP better-equipped to survive
You can have a primary weapon holstered while having a different primary weapon in your hands
Added TAR-21 and weapon remodels
Replaced M9, M1014, and G36c models with in-house created ones
Added TAR-21 rifle to Volk Specialist loadout
Easy Anti-Cheat delayed
Unfortunately we encountered some very last minute issues with EAC which could have prevented a large portion of our playerbase from being able to play the game. On that note we’ve had to delay the release of EAC until a later date. This will be introduced in the final update.
Competitive gamemode improvements
Each class can only be used by one player at a time
Game mode on map vote will only show the currently played one
Objective/Spawn behavior changed. Teams will take turns defending/attacking the same objective before changing to a new objective (ex. Volk defends objective A, Marsoc spawns at a random spawn. The round ends, teams swap factions, and Volk still defends objective A, and Marsoc spawns at a random spawn)
Turned off random weather events
Based on community feedback, suiciding/exiting as the last player on Volk (after the round reset ruling) will give Marsoc 2 points
We’ve replaced the suicide with the ability to destroy the Uplink dish (only as the last alive player left on Volk). This can be done by inputting a code on the tablet and waiting for a progress bar. The further you are from the objective, the longer this will take to send (signal bars will indicate this). While it’s sending, the objective will beep franticly, and once sent it will shutdown, giving Marsoc 1 point.
On both comp and non-comp lobbies (but affecting comp more), the map will be visible with the objective location in the tent prior to spawn, to allow players to plan accordingly
We’ve extended the Free Roam gamemode to be available in private multiplayer lobbies. This is intended for players to be able to explore and/or learn the maps together, plan strategies and create content. We’re considering making changes to this mode in an upcoming patch to help target it more for our intended usage (instead of it being used as a TDM). However, it’s worth noting that we aren’t ruling out gamemodes with respawns for the future. If introduced, we would be sure to implement it in such a way that it wouldn't take away from what we consider to be the ‘core’ Onward experience.
Casting improvements
Cameras will be hidden by default until space is held
Loading message added to freecam view between maps
Voice sliders, team names over cams and spectating text are all color coded now
Hotkeys added to jump to and cycle through alive players through team 1 and 2 (hotkeys are - and + respectfully)
Hotkeys added to spectate individual players on each team (if they are alive) - keypad numbers 1 - 5 for team 1, CTRL + keypad numbers for team 2. If no keypad is available, ALT + alpha numbers, or CTRL + ALT + alpha numbers.
Colored dots have been added under the scores to indicate how many players alive/down/dead on each team at a glance. This is useful for knowing which player you want to spectate
Mouse smoothing setting is saved between rounds & sessions
Main menus can now be navigated using keyboard. Can now get into a casting lobby without touching a VR headset or controller.
Chat volume sliders affect lobby voices too
Free roam cam locks mouse into window (no more edge snapping!)
Better scoreboard setup
Potential fix for cams turning white
Added reset cams button which should solve any cam problems if they arise
General
Radio: Added physical radio object which will drop by your feet when you get downed. This can be seen through any other meshes and allows players to always be able to reach it (as opposed to a ragdolled body, which was inconsistent)
Added semi-transparent hands when downed, to help with interacting with the aforementioned radio
Settings: Wristwatch hand preference can now be set in the settings menu
Settings: Gun-smoothing options have now been introduced in the settings menu. Stock and/or snap-turn users may want to try these out
Tent: Added a drawing board with some pens to uplink, operations & escort! Drawings will only be shared with your current team and will reset at the end of each round Drawing board also has a secret pen. We won’t tell you how to get it
Tent: Added military base surroundings
Tent: Enemy players are now shown on the map in non-competitive lobbies Enemy players could already be seen from flying VR spectate camera
Tent: Dead players now have white noise on spectate screen to indicate loss of signal (to help prevent ghosting in comp lobbies)
Tent: Added cross symbol next to player names to indicate that player has been downed
Tent: Moved Exit button to the back
Haptics added to many weapons/pickup interactions (pickup up, dropping, throwing, interacting, fire-mode toggle, drop/insert mag)
Audio: Added audio to grabbing, holstering, and throwing items
AI: AI can now spawn with lasers (night maps only), holo and red dot sights equipped
Ammo boxes: Will now contain equipment in addition to mags. The mags will be based on the weapons you currently have holstered and/or held. Only you can see the gear until you pull it out, then it can be shared
Free Roam: Added ammo boxes
Shooting range: The ammo boxes on the shooting range can now spawn more gear by closing and re-opening them. Removed the pile of mags
Shooting Range: Added some screens which will show the last target you hit with weapon fire
Server browser: Added some basic info for each lobby as a pop-up box when hovering over
Night Vision: Now lights up the surrounding area with an IR light. Will be a lot more useful on dark maps. Nobody else can currently see this light (for performance reasons, though this may change in future)
Tablet: Added signal bars to indicate when the uplink/destroy code can be send
Ballistic Shield: Can now stop pickups thrown at it
Ballistic Shield: Kills caused by grenades bouncing off your shield are attributed to you
Additional anti-cheat/exploit behavior
Tutorial: reworded to accommodate new control options
Operations: AI can no longer see through hedges on Suburbia
Updated to Unity 2017.3
Removed DirectX9 support. This should not affect any users. Support for DX9 willl be officially removed from Unity in the near future and current versions of SteamVR and OVR don't support DX9. Updated Quality settings
Lowest - Quarter res textures, 2x MSAA and low res shadows
Low - Half res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
Medium - Full res textures, 4x MSAA and medium res shadows
High - Full res textures, 8x MSAA and high res shadows The shadow resolution change will only affect realtime lights
Balance
Downfall: Added lights to interiors to reduce Volk advantage of having black camo inside buildings
Downfall & Quarantine: Fire now causes damage over time. Prevents Volk hiding in crashed heli
Artificial turning: Snap turns will now have a delay (and smooth turning slowed down) based on whether you’re stood, crouching or prone.
AI: Nudged player and AI spawns on Jungle and Quarantine to prevent getting shot at on spawn
M40A5: Increased magazine count from 3 to 6 to balance with the SV-98. SV-98 has 10-round mags and M40A5 only has 5-round mags
Extended grenade blocker time for competitive lobbies to better match up with the Onward Master League’s ruling
Fixes
Improved victory/defeat condition code to stop potential issues with round ending problems
Fixed issue where leftover smoke from smoke grenades would persist between rounds
Uplink: Fixed being able to play the same objective placement three times in a row
Uplink: Fixed occurrence where the uplink could be sent without the tablet being fully inside the signal region
AI Game Modes: fixed “dumpster spawn” that occurred when gamemode was changed while spawning
Connection: Increased timeout length for network traffic to help prevent random disconnects for users on WiFi and/or less stable connections
Player: Fixed vest fidgeting while sprinting
Player: Improved "push back" when putting head through walls to fix improper behavior around complicated geometry
Player: Snap and smooth turns now rotate you on the spot. This will prevent players rotating into walls/out of the map. Previously rotated around room center, and then attempted to reposition the player
Player: Fixed vest being visible if quit to lobby and started spectating
Player: Fixed occurrences which could lead to players falling through the map
Player: Fixed occurrence which could lead to spawning in with a black screen and flies
Player: Fixed very close objects clipping through white flashbang and fade to black visual effects
Player: Fixed being able to move through walls in playspace when downed
Player: Fixed night vision lenses being very visible through smoke grenade particles
Radio: Fixed occurrence where one or more players would not be audible on the radio
Shooting Range: Fixed getting stuck when respawning on hills
Shooting Range: Fixed problem with players not having audible proximity voice
Tent: Fixed players being unable to hear you until the end of the round if you join while it’s in progress
Tent: Highlighted VR goggles when available, to help highlight to players that they are functional
Tent: Fixed issue with spectating screen going black when someone leaves the lobby
Fixed breath particles on cold maps not appearing in correct position for non-local players
Fixed rare case of playing the same objective 3 times in a row if host left
Fixed ammo boxes incorrectly being visible in some Uplink lobbies
Weapon: Fixed weapons not firing the same direction across all clients. This was not affecting how damage was dealt or hits determined, but bullet holes and impact effects will now be in the same position for all clients.
Exploit: Fixed exploit related to running across playspace & snap/smooth turning
Bazaar: Improved white van collision near center of map (large area in front of van and gaps below van were incorrectly blocking bullets)
Quarantine: Fixed LOD terrain issues
Bazaar & Downfall: Fixed bad collision with white van
Inventory Fixes
Knife: Can no longer deal damage through walls
Syringe: Can no longer be used on dead or un-wounded players
Syringe: Fixed incorrectly being able to be used on you while you are not bleeding (syringes only stop bleeding, they do not add health)
Syringe: Fixed healing sometimes causing a lag spike for all players
Syringe: Fixed accidental healing when trying to holster syringe
Ammo Box: Fixed grabbing mags from ammo boxes being difficult
Ammo Box: Mags taken from ammo box will now be visible to all players
Gun: Re-grabbing a weapon that is only held by barrel/foregrip is no longer as difficult
Gun: Fixed unwanted firing of primary weapon while holstering (if holding weapon in just offhand, holding down trigger button to use radio, let go of offhand, dominant hand would snap back to weapon and begin firing as it was being holstered)
Gun: Fixed hand getting stuck to weapon bolt if holding onto bolt as you grab the foregrip/barrelgrip
Gun: Fixed being able to grab foregrip/barrelgrip while a weapon is holstering resulting in an invisible hand
Gun: Fixed being out of shotgun ammo but shells are still visible on vest
Gun: Fixed dying with weapon just in offhand causing no visible hands on respawn
Gun: Fixed getting stuck in hand if you died while it was only in your offhand
Gun: Fixed AUG laser sight disappearing/reappearing when toggled on/off
Gun: Fixed PKM bullet belt missing material
Gun: Fixed bolt action rifles not chambering a round when bolt is cycled after a new mag was inserted
Gun: Fixed holstered weapons always showing a mag attached regardless of if there really is a mag attached
Gun: Fixed attachment click on/off audio not playing in correct position on weapon
Ballistic Shield: Fixed stretching horizontally when revived repeatedly
Magazine: Fixed mags getting stuck while ejecting if another mag was inserted before the first one finished ejecting
Magazine: Fixed M40A5 mag incorrectly showing bullets when it is empty
Grenade: Fixed holding a live smoke grenade until it times-out preventing you from using smokes in the following rounds
Grenade: Fixed being able to unpin and un-spoon a grenade while inside a wall
Tablet: Fixed being able to send uplink code while tablet inside a wall
Hand: Fixed "broken finger" animation resulting from hand attempting to interact with things that are disabled (hand hovering over ammo, holster primary, hand could still attempt to grab ammo)
Hand: Can no longer use the hand/anything being held if it’s further than 1.5m from your player
Hi everyone, here we are with the next update! We have some new stuff we want to show you and get your opinion on.
This time it’s all about human models & uniforms. These go together because we want to show you stuff that is completed; not just human models and not just uniforms but both.
The uniforms we show here are Russian summer uniforms of 1941-42.
As always, we research before we design. In case of the Gates of Hell uniforms, a vast amount of effort went into consulting many different sources such as “Uniforms and insignia of Red Army 1918-1958 (Kharitonov O. V.), “Manual on fitting, assembly... of the marsh equipment of Red Army” (1941), orders of introduction of new items of equipment along the years spanning the war and many others. This was done by Artyom Kazarez who is our in- house historian for this subject.
This photo, said to have been taken in Stalingrad, shows off some accessories nicely (e.g. PPSH drum pouch, spade, shoes with puttee’s), but we can’t trust the colors because they may have been added later.
A number of Soviet uniforms are uniquely shaped. On some, the jacket does not open in the middle from the belt down; the reason for this being unclear. Does anyone of you know? Anyway, sometimes uniforms seem to have been designed for anywhere but the battlefield. Some Soviet soldiers wore overalls; while these kept out dust and dirt, they must have been a total nuisance in the latrine.
Let’s have a look at a selection of Soviet uniforms and a special rundown of some of the faces:
We will post more screenshots of the soviet models on Facebook in the coming days
As you can (maybe) see, there is much more detail modelled into these than you will find in most games. The soldier on the close-up belongs to a cadre division of the Red Army from pre-war service. He is fully equipped with Y-straps, bread bag and marsh boots. You may note he is sub-machinegunner, so he has two PPSH drum pouches. Sadly the image of a Soviet soldier in full gear with all equipment, backpack, marsh boots, etc was only a common sight in 1941. Big losses endured in the first months of war lead to tremendous losses of equipment. So during the Battle of Moscow, the standard soldier’s uniform and gear had many differences, and often most of the equipment was poorer than before. E.g: most bread bags and a substantial amount of Y-straps were lost in the summer & autumn of 1941. This will be shown in the game - in 1942, soldiers will have other arrangements of equipment.
The more polygons you use in the design process, the better your models look, but a lot of time needs to be spent in optimising the mesh for performance reasons. The “flipside” is - perhaps obviously - the amount of time it takes to finish and texture them all correctly. This is possibly the main reason why we are not developing at a break- neck pace. We use the “highpoly” method for human modelling, creating a model that contains millions of polygons, accurately simulating different cloth materials and down to the very moles on the soldiers’ skin. Later, the sculpture is broken down to just a couple of thousand polygons, something that the game can handle. The wrinkles of cloth and other tiny details that were once contained in the million-polygon mesh are transferred to the texture, giving a natural appearance to all details.
After the modelling is done we need to add something else to get a sense of realism: we should have a wide cross- section of all the different peoples that made the Soviet army a multicultural place by any standard. We have designed our 3D soldier models to represent just that. Note that the faces of the 3D models here only show a fraction of the total number of different faces, and we have collections of them for different nations.
Besides that, we need to add texture variations that make the uniforms recognizable. Our historical advisors have made a specification catalogue to track the different uniforms that we will make, and all the separate pieces that conform it. We will be producing approximately 30 uniforms per nation for Early Access, which is not only a record for any MoW game, but perhaps for any RTS out there - we would have to check! All in all we hope you can see that we are not only progressing but always choosing for ways that add to the quality. Do you like the result?
Last but not least, some words on the development cycle in general.
Quality, realism and historical correctness take time to integrate. Since all our devs are developing the game in their spare time, it is only logical that the game is not yet finished; however, we are progressing nicely toward release. At the time we write this, a huge volume of work is already finished and our goal for EA this year is realistic. In one of our summer dev blogs we will announce the start of beta testing, the logical next step in any game development cycle. Make sure you keep following us and, when the time comes, subscribe as a tester. We are currently setting up the process for it. By the way, beta testers will receive a game key from us; they will not need to buy the game when it’s released. Would you be interested to be among the first that see these uniforms and models in- game?
On to a couple of facts then; did you know that….
Some Soviet items were looted off Soviet soldiers by default; the felted boot, for instance, was much better for cold conditions because it lacked the cold- conducting iron nails the German soldiers had in their boot soles.
The “winter lesson” the Wehrmacht had to learn in 1941 was the absolute necessity to wear the uniform trousers over their boots to prevent snow from gathering in them. This could mean the difference between keeping or losing a foot.
Many Soviet soldiers on war-photos have one interesting peculiarity: they have the lone belt without pouches, the foxhole spade or other items. It’s usually so, because many photos were staged and not taken in battle conditions. On the other hand, there’s many photos of soldiers in full gear as well.
Every soldier should have a gas mask bag with it’s corresponding gas mask. It’s interesting to note that from the beginning of the war many soldiers dropped their gasmask and used the former bag for carrying other items - ammo, food, tobacco, etc. Below is a war-time picture showing the usual cargo of a gas mask bag in 1942.
-ADDED invisible UI Shader (only works for transparency override ex: OBS),
-ADDED new popup for first time users to enable the extension,
-CHANGED blocks edited from the quickaccess are now unique per background level,
-CHANGED blocks color is now unique per background level,
-CHANGED gear loads when needed rather than upfront,
-CHANGED palette swaps are now done with a shader - putting less stress on the CPU/RAM at the cost of GPU,
-FIXED purchasing and using custom animations,
-FIXED duel decline no longer whispers,
-FIXED extension ownership of the move commands left and right,
-FIXED gear option to use palette swap will also toggle the preview of the swap correctly,
-FIXED bug with avatar and gear ui from displaying a white block instead of the avatar,
-FIXED bug with frame anim gear displaying the entire spritesheet when an avatar spawns
Have you ever missed an opportunity from past Red Scorpion S (Ver Summer Festival) and Ice Breaker S (Ver Summer Festival) events well here is your chance to earn some of the combination items that your might have been missed in the past. It's time to turn back time once again and get these combination items Follow the link below for more details: http://forums.playredfox.com/index.php?threads/event-blast-from-the-past-fire-and-ice-edition.42624/
NEW + Early Access hat customizations for both Humans and Squids + Inception Helmet customization for Inception Discord Community members + New Farm Map! Tractors! Chickens! Pigs! Sheep! + New look for most customization icons on the Customization Menu
BALANCE CHANGES Update to 4x4 and Moon Rover: -Reduced impact damage vs infantry by ~20%.  Update to team balancing: -When moving to a new map, the auto-balancer should do a better job now ensuring that teams are well-balanced.  Balance changes to Dynamite: -Damage reduced to 30 per stick, from 35. -Stick explosion radius reduced to 100, from 175.  Balance changes to Antimatterizer: -Damage range based on charge % changed to 5-18, from 5-13. -Number of hits based on charge % changed to 3-10, from 6-14. -Minimum charge required in order to fire increased to 30%, from 10%. -Overall, total time spent discharging should go down, and damage at 75%+ charge should go up. -Discharge state is no longer interrupted by effects that prevent firing (eg, handcuffs or optic overloader).
IMPROVEMENTS + Lots of art optimization to multiple maps
KNOWN ISSUES + Tree missing collision near northern part of Human base + Tractors can get stuck on fences + Human Vehicles can launch each other into the air
