Mar 16, 2019

Siberian Dawn - Winterflood

DOA

The launch of Siberian Dawn in September was a bit disappointing to put it mildly due to a number of different problems that were not directly connected to the gameplay itself, which I believe was perfectly fine. I am not going to go in to extensive detail about the problems but with mistakes made with a test group that I believed wanted to play the game and offer feedback but ended up being mostly a silent front I launched the game having to believe in what I had at that point and see what happened. I also probably foolishly believed that it would get more support from different websites that I talked to but that never happened.

Not Physical

One big mistake I made was with the rules and teaching the game, I treated it like a physical card game and presented the rules in that manner. I am now fully treating it as a digital game and looking at how to present it clearly for that medium, with better Orientation and a new training mission. I have also not been able to present the world of Siberian Dawn fully yet either. There are mysteries to reveal and much more background that I want to present to best show off this game and where it is developing. Narrative and world building are important here so I want to get it right. And as I am now concentrating on this fully being a digital game there are new areas of the game that I can explore without considering it as a physical game.

One Vision

People may also not be aware that everything in this game is done only by me, so although you are getting one person’s vision with me handling every part of the game you are also getting one person’s perspective, which without feedback might sometimes make mistakes as with teaching players the game. I have had a couple of people offer great comments post launch which have helped improve the game but apart from these it has again been silence, so I have to trust what I am changing is best for the game and that people are interested in playing Siberian Dawn. It also takes a while for me to do all the things I want to do with the game, so I have not abandoned the game as some might speculate but I am busy making these changes.

Version 2

So at the moment I am currently working on version 2 of Siberian Dawn with a large number of improvements that I hope will give the game a solid base that can then have future expansion easily added, while allowing players to quickly get into the game and fully enjoy the experience. Below are the planned improvements and there will still be an Android version hopefully when version 2 is finished, but obviously I didn’t want to release the launch version of the game on Android when there were problems, mainly with training, that needed fixing first.

New Oversight tutorial missions
Restructured Oversight
1080 HD version of the game
Graphics and art updated
Content Control menu
Game play and world videos
Finish Mission Pack 2
Android version

What Next

It would be great to have feedback, and if people talk to me and show an interest then I will talk about the game more, it is the best way to develop this, but obviously if it is still silence then I will not use my time to talk about what I am doing but use it elsewhere instead.

Stephen

Mar 16, 2019

Devblog #79: Mount Elbrus

Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront - Herr Flick

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Hi folks, it’s time for an update.

After the “shrubbery update” it’s back to something completely different. This time we want to tell you about a mission we’re building which is - of course - based on an epic real battle.

This one is from 1942, when “Fall Blau” was supposed to give Germany control of the oil fields of the Caucasus and which was supposed to include the conquest of Stalingrad. It was a “make or break” battle that was arguably the nail in the German coffin on the eastern front.

The part of the offensive that went for the Caucasus was called “Operation Edelweiss”. The directive was passed by Hitler on 23 July 1942. The main force was accompanied by a large number of oil industry workers, supposed to go to work in the oil fields immediately following the battle.

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Mount Elbrus

In August 1942, German mountain troops (1st & 4th Mountain Div.) were being monitored closely at Hitler's headquarters. The moment they would reach the black sea was eagerly anticipated.
Hitler is said to have exploded in anger when he heard that his troops had scaled mount Elbrus to plant a flag. As Albert Speer recalled:
“I often saw Hitler furious but seldom did his anger erupt from him as it did when this report came in. For hours he raged as if his entire plan of the campaign had been ruined by this bit of sport. Days later he went on railing to all and sundry about "those crazy mountain climbers" who "belong before a court-martial." They were pursuing their idiotic hobbies in the midst of a war, he exclaimed indignantly, occupying an idiotic peak even though he had commanded that all efforts must be concentrated upon Sukhumi.”
So why did the German mountain troops climb the “roof of Europe”? It turns out it was the pet project of the commander of 1. Mountain Division, Hubert Lanz. As the XXXXIX. Mountain Corps advanced into the Caucasus Lanz ordered his personal aid, Heinz Groth, to assemble a team to climb Mount Elbrus. The Corps commander, Rudolf Konrad, didn’t like the idea but Lanz went ahead with it anyway. The main objective of the XXXXIX. Mountain Corps was the Kluchorski mountain pass, the main “road” through the mountains towards Sukhumi. On August 17th a bataillon led by Harald von Hirschfeld stormed the pass in a daring night attack. Lanz promptly decided to rename the closest summit to Mount Hirschfeld. Lanz, a passionate national-socialist and mountaineer, had a similar cunning plan for the Elbrus: he wanted to impress Hitler by renaming it “Adolf-Hitler-Spitze” (A-H-Peak). That plan quite evidently backfired badly.

Gebirgsjäger in action hauling supplies up a mountain slope.

So how did the German troops get up to the 5642m (17.000ft) summit?
They used a base camp which they had taken before, which is at 4100m (13.000ft). This base camp (Priut-11) was named after the 11 scientists who had built the first refuge at that place (“shelter for the 11”). It had only been rebuilt and finished as a hotel in 1940.
The iconic building had been designed by architect Nikolay Popov. It was rather luxurious, with heating and electricity in the rooms; the Germans took it by ruse without firing a single shot. The mountain troops enjoyed the amenities of the luxurious hotel and a team climbed the peak in a snowstorm on August 21st. Two days later they repeated the climb when the weather conditions were better. Despite Hitler’s negative reaction the climb was a propaganda coup for the Wehrmacht, which attracted Joseph Goebbels attention. He sent Ernst Ertl, an expert mountaineer and war correspondent, to restage the event so the German propaganda machine had good quality pictures to print and show everywhere, which Ertl did on September 7th.

The Soviet Transcaucasus Front at first didn’t think the Germans would be foolish enough to force the crossing of the Caucasus mountain range and was concentrated on the defense along the black sea coast and on defending the border with Turkey. When it became clear that German mountain troops were pushing south General Ivan Tyulenev quickly and effectively organized the defense of the mountains ending all hopes for the German mountain troops to achieve a meaningful breakthrough. As part of this defensive effort Soviet units launched counter attacks against the most forward German positions, including a counterattack against the mostly symbolic German outpost at the Elbrus base camp.

This happened on the 28. of September 1942. The stalemate that had existed since august was broken by the Soviets, who had formed a special NKVD detachment of about 100 men to recapture the hotel.They were led by Lieutenant Grigoryants and armed with machine guns, mortars and sniper rifles.
The German mountain troops were surprised at first but reacted quickly. Machine gun fire echoed between the mountains for hours.
Slowly the battle turned against Lieutenant Grigoryants and his men. After the battle, only 4 of them got back alive. The Lieutenant’s body was one of many that were left behind on the mountain slope. Thus ended one of the most unusual battles of the war.
Meanwhile the Germans did not reach their objectives (to push past the Caucasus to the Black sea coast) and had to retreat hastily when Stalingrad was surrounded.

The mission in Gates of Hell.

In GoH you have the choice of playing this mission as either single player or as a cooperative battle.
Supplies and reinforcements can not be called in; you have to make do with whatever you have available, because the real life situation does not allow rapid deployment of reserve troops or whatever.
In the mission, when playing as Soviets, you get a chance to use alternative tactics in an attempt to take the hotel either by stealth and surprise or by sheer speed of attack. Using snipers you can try to take out the enemy machine gunners when you open fire.

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The height difference of the real situation is copied into the map. This means that from one end to the other, the map has a 90m height difference, exactly like the real slope.
Being this high above sea level, the ambience is very cold and windy. The attacker is exposed to the wind and the enemy; there is nearly nowhere to hide, so you need some stealth to get close enough to Priut 11 before you can attack.
Once you are close enough you can try to use speed and the element of surprise to complete the mission.

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When playing as Germany, you will have to defend in such a way that the NKVD troops do not outflank you, or kill your machine gunner.
By prioritizing your targets and by using the hotel structure to your advantage you may or may not be able to stave off the attack.

Troops will be equipped with the weapons they carried in real life; machine gunners and snipers are equally important and can turn the mission around completely for you - but only if you use them well!

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Did you know?

Most transport for the Gebirgsjäger was done with mules
MG34 and MG42 gunners within the Gebirgsjäger units carried more ammunition than regular infantry MG gunners, but there were fewer of them.
Priut 11 was lost in a fire in 1998, when a tourist accidentally put a pan of gasoline on a stove in his hotel room, thinking it was water.
Fall Blau was actually re-named “Operation Braunschweig” on June 30th 1942, two days after the beginning of the attack, but the original name stuck.
Further reading about priut 11 can be found in: Kev Reynolds, “The mountain hut book”
Further reading for German readers about the 1. Mountain Division can be in found in: Hermann Frank Meyer, “Blutiges Edelweiß : die 1. Gebirgs-Division im Zweiten Weltkrieg”, Berlin 2008.

Last but not least; we are working on a new game trailer and other content to renew our steam store page. We hope to have that ready soon, so we can tell you in one of the next updates.
Well, that’s it for this one. We hope you can see that Gates of Hell is turning into the first RTS game in which your knowledge of historical military operations and tactics can actually give you the edge in combat. That is certainly the case in this mission! Are you ready for realism? Tell us all about it!

Mar 16, 2019

VFC Academy Version 0.9 (Initial Release) Is now LIVE!

Virtual Fighting Championship (VFC) - Yang Liu

Hi community! VFC academy mode's initial deliver version 0.9 is now live, and using this opportunity, we want to hear your feedback in regards to the mode to assist us in the further development of the mode

VFC academy mode is an essential part of the VFC development roadmap, and it is aimed at becoming our player’s favorite VR fitness tool to train your fighting skills, body strength and stamina

In this initial release, it has 2 main game modes: Dummycraft and Sprint Mode.

Dummycraft let's player hone their punching skills and train for reactionary punching patterns. Game will detect and inform the player on each of their punches in regards to power, punch type and accuracy, and gives a final score.

Sprint mode let the player train your stamina and arm muscle by simulating a racing environment, and the game will actually match play against each other in a PvP racing competition using the method of time-shifted multiplayer.

We are still developing many more training tools and game modes for VFC academy (and indefinitely into the future) , thus why we coined the term version 0.9 as this will be an ongoing process.

Some of our planned upcoming stuff for VFC academy in the next few updates

Player orientation control, so 180 degree restricted players can enjoy VFC academy too
Enrich the environment just a little more
A mode for jogging instead of sprinting

Some of the planned major updates in the near future:

-VFC Fighting Core 2.0
-Overall visual & aesthetic upgrade
we will reveal more on that alittle later ;)

That's all!
Thanks!