Aug 18, 2022
Onward - SyrinSong
Hello Onward Community,
We hope you are enjoying all the new features that came with update 1.8.11. Before we reply to some of your feedback, we want to first take a moment and talk at a higher level about the Onward project and introduce some of the new people who are working on it. For over a year now you have seen us introduce not only new content, like maps, weapons, and weapon features, but you’ve also heard about the backend improvements to systems throughout the game, such as the refactor for our lobbies and the latest one for our weapons. We want to be clear and transparent that as we continue to develop the game, we still have more of this type of work to do. Dante, who as many of you know is the creator of the game, wanted to personally take a moment to let you all in on some of the things that are happening behind the curtains and what it will mean for the game and for the team.
“Hey everyone,
Dante here - It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but I wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and kicking and have been working with the team and Meta on building the future of Onward.
Another important thing I want to acknowledge to our players, is that your feedback on lack of game updates has not fallen on deaf ears, and you deserve some transparency on why things have been slow.
In short, the two big reasons why updates have been slow are -
A large portion of our team has been focused on rebuilding our game’s core infrastructure to future-proof our development and make Onward more stable for all players. This has been ongoing for a while now and will be the focus for us for the remainder of the year. This is critical work that we must complete in order to produce more of the amazing content and features you've been asking for.
Our development process has been evolving over the past year into a more refined and organized manner but needs some time for the entire studio to adapt to. Once this has been fully implemented, updates will be released more reliably and with more accurate timelines. Onward was initially a passion project I created and shipped by myself back in 2016, and being a first time solo developer meant there were definitely some things that needed improving with our workflows and codebase as the team scaled.
Since joining Meta we have gotten access to more senior developers and producers, who have begun to improve our development process. In fact, I’d like to introduce 2 recent Downpour hires that are helping us achieve these goals: Mike and Mike.
Michael (Mikee) Tsarouhas. Mikee was the lead game designer on Insurgency Sandstorm and has joined us to help take Onward’s gameplay to another level. You will see a lot of Mikee’s design impact in 2023 after we finish our infrastructure work for 2022.
Michael (Mike) Syrnyk. Mike has worked on and produced major AAA titles such as Bioshock Infinite, COD Advanced Warfare, COD WW2, and COD Vanguard. He brings a seasoned perspective and wisdom to our development process that will help propel Downpour Interactive forward. Don’t worry by the way, we are not turning Onward into COD. Mike will be focused on production and planning and I will be focused on creative direction and gameplay.
I appreciate your continued support of Downpour and Onward. We are in this for the long haul and sometimes you have to move slow so you can move fast. We remain committed to delivering you the best modern military tactical shooter in VR, and we’re not finished yet.
Best,
Dante”
We hope you understand the direction the studio needs to take right now. You’ve been incredibly patient with us as we go through this process, and we hope you are looking forward to getting back to content updates as much as we are! Over the next couple of months we don’t expect to have many written updates for you, but rest assured we have a lot of new content and features that are being evaluated and worked on for the future. The first step, however, is getting that foundation work completed.
We have been receiving a lot of community feedback on Update 1.8.11. We want to address a couple specific points we have been hearing and discuss how we will be moving forward.
Weapons
You have told us that the hand alignments for the weapons in 1.8.11 feel off. We'll be making changes here to get them closer to how they felt before the update, while also trying to retain the benefits of the weapon systems refactor that will make it easier for us to add new weapons in the future.
Gunstock Calibration
We have heard your requests for the ability to vertically adjust the placement of the weapon, and reports of a few general bugs. We are evaluating fixes for these bugs and continuing to look into further development of the feature.
Voice Chat
Some players have reported issues, such as connection loss, when it comes to the voice chat stability while in game. We are looking into what is causing these issues and hope to get them fixed as communication is one of Onward’s core design pillars.
In regards to some players that are reporting not being able to get communications to work at all, that is possibly due to some countries' regulations to block VoIP chats systems. If you are continuing to have issues where voice chat is not working, please check the list of countries below and/or your countries regulations regarding VOIP services.
Belize, Bahrain, Caribbean, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore
Removal of Player IDs
A change that was not noted in the 1.8.11 change log was the removal of player IDs from being visible in the tent. If you need to report a player, you can follow the same instructions as before. The User ID is no longer necessary or required.
We are continuing to evaluate feedback, work on improvements to address these concerns from 1.8.11 and others, however it will likely come after we finish up the larger tasks of foundation work in the upcoming update. We will continue to keep you updated and communicate with you as development progresses.
VRML announced its Season 12 winners. Congratulations to Rome for their victory! Season 13 is already underway. If you would like to join the VRML in their current season or are interested in getting more information about playing in the competitive league for Onward. Join their Discord https://discord.gg/XmhFuHRCRu
New community custom maps have been added to the game. All of these maps are available now on both PC and Quest.
Engagement Practice submitted by BlackAvarice
“A midrange map designed around the idea of engagement and suppression practice, with a viewing deck providing officers a place to view from a safe angle.”
Poligonal submitted by Rubio
“Cover small map ,faster uplink Polygonal a small symmetrical map with operations modes, both defense and attack have the same coverage .”
Facing Worlds Remake submitted by Shelderino
“Ode to the Unreal Tournament Classic! This is a sniper's paradise.”
Contrast submitted by Virus
“A clean FreeRoam oriented map made up of 3 floors.”
That's it for this month.
Stay Frosty!
We hope you are enjoying all the new features that came with update 1.8.11. Before we reply to some of your feedback, we want to first take a moment and talk at a higher level about the Onward project and introduce some of the new people who are working on it. For over a year now you have seen us introduce not only new content, like maps, weapons, and weapon features, but you’ve also heard about the backend improvements to systems throughout the game, such as the refactor for our lobbies and the latest one for our weapons. We want to be clear and transparent that as we continue to develop the game, we still have more of this type of work to do. Dante, who as many of you know is the creator of the game, wanted to personally take a moment to let you all in on some of the things that are happening behind the curtains and what it will mean for the game and for the team.
“Hey everyone,
Dante here - It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, but I wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and kicking and have been working with the team and Meta on building the future of Onward.
Another important thing I want to acknowledge to our players, is that your feedback on lack of game updates has not fallen on deaf ears, and you deserve some transparency on why things have been slow.
In short, the two big reasons why updates have been slow are -
A large portion of our team has been focused on rebuilding our game’s core infrastructure to future-proof our development and make Onward more stable for all players. This has been ongoing for a while now and will be the focus for us for the remainder of the year. This is critical work that we must complete in order to produce more of the amazing content and features you've been asking for.
Our development process has been evolving over the past year into a more refined and organized manner but needs some time for the entire studio to adapt to. Once this has been fully implemented, updates will be released more reliably and with more accurate timelines. Onward was initially a passion project I created and shipped by myself back in 2016, and being a first time solo developer meant there were definitely some things that needed improving with our workflows and codebase as the team scaled.
Since joining Meta we have gotten access to more senior developers and producers, who have begun to improve our development process. In fact, I’d like to introduce 2 recent Downpour hires that are helping us achieve these goals: Mike and Mike.
Michael (Mikee) Tsarouhas. Mikee was the lead game designer on Insurgency Sandstorm and has joined us to help take Onward’s gameplay to another level. You will see a lot of Mikee’s design impact in 2023 after we finish our infrastructure work for 2022.
Michael (Mike) Syrnyk. Mike has worked on and produced major AAA titles such as Bioshock Infinite, COD Advanced Warfare, COD WW2, and COD Vanguard. He brings a seasoned perspective and wisdom to our development process that will help propel Downpour Interactive forward. Don’t worry by the way, we are not turning Onward into COD. Mike will be focused on production and planning and I will be focused on creative direction and gameplay.
I appreciate your continued support of Downpour and Onward. We are in this for the long haul and sometimes you have to move slow so you can move fast. We remain committed to delivering you the best modern military tactical shooter in VR, and we’re not finished yet.
Best,
Dante”
We hope you understand the direction the studio needs to take right now. You’ve been incredibly patient with us as we go through this process, and we hope you are looking forward to getting back to content updates as much as we are! Over the next couple of months we don’t expect to have many written updates for you, but rest assured we have a lot of new content and features that are being evaluated and worked on for the future. The first step, however, is getting that foundation work completed.
From the Devs’ Desks:
We have been receiving a lot of community feedback on Update 1.8.11. We want to address a couple specific points we have been hearing and discuss how we will be moving forward.
Weapons
You have told us that the hand alignments for the weapons in 1.8.11 feel off. We'll be making changes here to get them closer to how they felt before the update, while also trying to retain the benefits of the weapon systems refactor that will make it easier for us to add new weapons in the future.
Gunstock Calibration
We have heard your requests for the ability to vertically adjust the placement of the weapon, and reports of a few general bugs. We are evaluating fixes for these bugs and continuing to look into further development of the feature.
Voice Chat
Some players have reported issues, such as connection loss, when it comes to the voice chat stability while in game. We are looking into what is causing these issues and hope to get them fixed as communication is one of Onward’s core design pillars.
In regards to some players that are reporting not being able to get communications to work at all, that is possibly due to some countries' regulations to block VoIP chats systems. If you are continuing to have issues where voice chat is not working, please check the list of countries below and/or your countries regulations regarding VOIP services.
Belize, Bahrain, Caribbean, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore
Removal of Player IDs
A change that was not noted in the 1.8.11 change log was the removal of player IDs from being visible in the tent. If you need to report a player, you can follow the same instructions as before. The User ID is no longer necessary or required.
We are continuing to evaluate feedback, work on improvements to address these concerns from 1.8.11 and others, however it will likely come after we finish up the larger tasks of foundation work in the upcoming update. We will continue to keep you updated and communicate with you as development progresses.
Community Center:
VRML announced its Season 12 winners. Congratulations to Rome for their victory! Season 13 is already underway. If you would like to join the VRML in their current season or are interested in getting more information about playing in the competitive league for Onward. Join their Discord https://discord.gg/XmhFuHRCRu
New community custom maps have been added to the game. All of these maps are available now on both PC and Quest.
Engagement Practice submitted by BlackAvarice
“A midrange map designed around the idea of engagement and suppression practice, with a viewing deck providing officers a place to view from a safe angle.”
Poligonal submitted by Rubio
“Cover small map ,faster uplink Polygonal a small symmetrical map with operations modes, both defense and attack have the same coverage .”
Facing Worlds Remake submitted by Shelderino
“Ode to the Unreal Tournament Classic! This is a sniper's paradise.”
Contrast submitted by Virus
“A clean FreeRoam oriented map made up of 3 floors.”
That's it for this month.
Stay Frosty!
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