Hello Onward Community,

We hope you have enjoyed all the images that have been appearing on our social channels throughout the last month. All of the posts related to things included in the upcoming update 1.10. This month on the Devs’ Desk we will be discussing the images, their meaning, and how they relate to the upcoming update.

We know you are excited to play on the new map and use the new weapons. Update 1.10 is expected to drop on February 21st. Keep your eyes on our socials to know the exact time the update becomes available for download.


New Map
We can now confirm that our next map, Egress, is coming in update 1.10. Egress is a snowy urban map taking place in a port city in Estonia, with a focus on CQB and medium-range combat. Establishing lore and story background in Onward is important to us, and we’re trying to emphasize deeper immersion through story with our future level content. The newspaper articles that were shared on our social media actually appear in-game, placed throughout the level. Each one gives hints as to why Volk and MARSOC are there, and what led up to the fight. When you load into Egress, you’ll see a location and summary of the engagement as with all our other maps. But if you can connect the dots there with the articles, you’ll learn much more. See below for the mission summary seen in the loading screen:

Volk has bribed a dockhand to falsely report a bomb threat, causing an evacuation. Volk aims to kidnap a scientist on the CBRN response team. Nearby MARSOC on a joint training operation have been given permission to move in.

For the level design of Egress, we knew we wanted to emphasize the close-quarters weapons available in Update 1.10. The map is tightly packed with alleyways, warehouses, loading docks and a centralized hotel that make for a variety of ways to strategize with your team to cover ground effectively, outflank your opposition and make gameplay fresh with each round. We want to take this moment to share more images showcasing some of the outside areas on this level and leave the rest for you to discover.





New Weapons
In our very first teaser image, in addition to lore and setting, we left a nice little hint as to the weapon content coming in 1.10. Those in our community with a keen eye could see there was text in the bottom right hand corner of the page in that image reading “1316G1B”, which decodes as follows:

13 = M (13th letter of the alphabet)
16 = P (16th letter of the alphabet)
G = 7 (7th letter of the alphabet)
1 = A (First letter of the alphabet)
B = 2 (Second letter of the alphabet)

M - P - 7 - A - 2

We can confirm that the “MP7A2”, an oft requested PDW style SMG, is coming in 1.10 with the SR-2MP Veresk as its counterpart. Two image teases for the weapons showcased the amazing work the team does on the details when making weapons for the game. We showed extreme close ups of both guns, and then later showed off full on renders. You can see the close ups compared to the full weapon images below.



It was important to us that these new pieces of content fit together in a cohesive way that makes sense for both the gameplay and setting. These two PDWs are perfect for the confined urban CQB of Egress since they are small, lightweight, tight quarters weapons designed to be used against conventional armored combatants. Furthermore, we can see that the MP7A2 is used by both American and Estonian SOF, with Russian forces making use of the SR-2MP Veresk on their end as well. With adding these two guns, we have grown our CQB play and further expanded our suite of weapons in a way that makes sense for the update’s map and all other Onward maps, not to mention finally getting an SMG onto Volk!

Major Features
In addition to the other two major features we talked about in previous Sitreps (regional servers & improved AI animations), we wanted to highlight that major fixes and updates will be applied throughout our maps. The foundations we've laid in our previous updates now allow us to refocus on releasing improvements we've spent the last year working on in the background, such as map fixes etc. Starting in update 1.10 you will start to see a big flow of map updates coming out again. This includes things like updated textures, misaligned collision fixes, fixed exploitable locations, and more.

More details for all the features and bugs fixes that are included in update 1.10 will be announced with the patch notes when the update goes live.

VR Central shared a fun video of some of the interesting things that happen during his gameplay in Onward. Some of the clips included are some skilled kills, funny moments, and some acts of ultimate betrayal during game sessions. We are glad to see that he has such a good time during his game sessions and makes the most out of some of the situations that happen on the battlefield. You can check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbHlPa8VwZs

The Custom Map Makers have done it again this month. We have 6 new custom maps for this month! Make sure to head over to the Workshop in game and add them to your library to test them out.

Shadow_Base submitted by !Lejam009 [PC & Quest]
The official home base map for SSF commissioned by Astro from SSF. This map was inspired by the 125 Fighter Wing base in Jacksonville FL


Lazer Quest submitted by Timemaster111 [PC & Quest]
Somehow you stumbled into the Lazer Quest arena. Reports are the enemy is here too... have... fun? (P.S. Try me with Night Vision and a Laser!)


Tactical Map& Battle Map Tachikawa submitted by Knyam_Gee [PC & Quest]


Cloud & Cloud Night submitted by TNK_tarematsu_JP [PC & Quest]
You are above the clouds. Be careful not to hit the fighters!
For night mode Your night vision is broken. Must use a flashlight.



Stay Focused, Stay Alert

Jane’s been asked to shoot a TV program called “Cooking Strike” to show off her incredible cooking skills, and she needs to complete five levels in a row to make sure she’s ready!

While you complete the levels to get ready for the show, the TV crew will bring some more professional equipment.

If you fail a level, your progress will be reset and you’ll have to start from the beginning!
You can try as many times as you want. The TV show’s paying for the food, so you won’t be using yours up.

When you finish the fifth level you’ll receive a big reward that includes booster parts, Coins, Rubies, and blog points!



If you don’t complete all the levels before the event ends, don’t worry. You aren’t losing anything, and there’ll always be another TV program!

Thanks to your feedback, we bring you the following improvements:

Before playing the new version, please delete your saved games. By default, saved games will be in the following path:

C\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\Ardeal Studio\GoldenJar Fall

Game:

• Added a new checkpoint system
  
• Added new journal and mission system
  
• Added a border system for objects and enemies

UI
Added new UI for Kokik journal

From Ardeal Studio we are very grateful to all of you for your support!

Hey there, fellow Catz! Today I want to talk about the progress of the last months and the changes of the new version (prologue / demo).

AI Upgrade

Last time, I talked about Familiars in ZpellCatz. Familiars can be controlled by a friend in local multiplayer or by an AI for moments when there are no friends sitting next to you. ^^
In order to be able to switch back and forth between those two control schemes, I had to upgrade the AI systems for better pathfinding.

The cool bonus: The enemy controlling AI also benefited from it! Enemies get stuck in corners less often and multiple melee enemies that hunt your cat hero do a better job at cooperating as a group.



Kudos to Cory Koseck (7ark) for their Unity-Passfinding repo. I used that one as a starting point and adjusted it to my needs. The red nodes on the image above show blocked paths, the blue nodes with green connections show possible paths.

Floor Visuals

One of the reasons that I started a crowdfunding campaign for ZpellCatz last October was to collect money in order to be able to polish the art a little bit. Thanks to the support it was possible to add some assets from matching "low poly / polygon" asset packs. One of these new additions are floor visuals!





The floor tiles are intentionally kept plain and monochromatic so as not to take the focus away from the combat action. But they look a lot better than the simple flat ground before.

Familiar Skill Trees

Next to the AI update mentioned before, I've also continued to work on the Familiars themselves. Today, lets have a look at the skill tree of them.

Each Familiar has a set of 4 active skills that unlock one by one over the first few levels. In addition to this, Familiars have passive skills called talents. Most talents affect the Familiar as well as your cat hero. Talents come in a "select A or B" fashion and can be respected for free in the village.

The first two available Familiars are Loki and Bashu. Loki uses high damage ranged spells (fire and nature element). The active skill "Heat Nova" also reduces the resistances of all enemies hit.



Loki's talents provide offensive stats like critical chance, spell power or faster cast.



In contrast, Bashu uses melee spells (lux and storm) and it is able to take a lot more damage than Loki. Two of Bashu's four active skills scale with max HP as well as spell power, so it's able to deal some damage even if you build it very defensively.



Bashu's talents provide defensive stats like block chance, life on hit or hit points.



Note: All info here is in development content and subject to change.

"Down to Earth" Update (0.96.0) February '23

*** General ***
- Fixed ingame texts
- Adjusted AI pathfinding to get stuck less often
- Minor pause menu UI adjustments
- Fixed strange tooltip positions near screen edges
- Added floor visuals

*** Quality of Life ***
- Double clicking a cat's save file now starts the game with that cat

*** Balance ***
- Fixed wolf and fox AI to feel more like "hit & run"
- Flathead enemies (zombies) now have increased defense / HP
- Early enemy types (stars, ducks, urchins) now use more interesting spells

*** Engine ***
- Game engine update
- Library updates

Full Changelog

Steam Next Fest may end, but our beloved memories of it will stay with us forever. We will always remember tons of fun we had discovering new great games, watching cozy livestreams, and playing engaging demos. We’ll also remember the excitement we had while launching the very first Ashen Knights demo, and playing through it during our broadcasts. Thank you so much for joining us in the fun, friends! If you had a chance to play Ashen Knights demo during this celebration of gaming, please share some feedback with us. All you need to do is complete this short survey. It is very simple and will take just about 7 minutes of your time. Thank you so much, you’re awesome!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdoIrjdr4-KGoBOKvL194H0x9d8ERpkuJ_LV882yBqA6B2BgA/viewform

We really appreciate your help, friends. Cheers, and see you soon!

Play the demo and add the game to your wishlist!

Last year we participated in the delightful Indie Cup Canada '22 Awards among other neat games. Now Indie Cup is throwing a celebration on Steam we're happy to be a part of. Yes, the event is called Indie Cup Celebration.

We have released the first seven levels of Quantum Coherence as a demo for Steam Next Fest. The demo showcases space combat and the BLINC mechanic, as well as providing some insight into the game's lore. Our aim is to pique your curiosity with the demo, leaving you with more questions than answers. Join us on an epic journey by downloading the demo and providing feedback. Don't miss out on being among the first to experience Quantum Coherence

Stay tuned because there's a lot more to come before the game is released this year!

You can follow us on Twitter and signup for updates on our site.

If you haven't done so yet, wish list Quantum Coherence now!

The organizers of Indie Cup are in Ukraine and if you haven't donated to humanitarian cause to help their country, please do so. Here's a list of ways to help Ukraine.

Greetings, Adventurers!

Typing in chat, grouping up, and other first interactions can intimidate some players. Figuring out what to say is often the hardest part, but there’s a simple solution — just say hi. New World content creator ItsHilaryMason and her boyfriend Steven’s relationship started with just the word hi. Their “love forged in Aeternum” provides tips for how good intentions always help when talking to anyone for the first time. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we spoke with them about their first impressions, romantic quests, and playing together.

“My Company Gabagool Gobblers started on a server called Cantref Gwaelod,” Steven said. “We had kind of taken over the whole server, so when server tokens came out, we wanted to find a server where Syndicate didn’t own much. We did our research and picked a server where only one territory was purple, Calnogor. That one territory was governed by Hilary, who promptly reached out after we’d transferred. I saw her as a strong-willed natural born leader.”



"They were a big Syndicate Company and one of the first transfers onto the server, so I’d taken it upon myself as a Governor of another Syndicate Company to go say hello," Hilary said. "As soon as we met, Steven was all about helping out others on the server - which he immediately did. Though we didn’t know each other super well at that point, I could tell he was the type of person that you’d want to have as a friend. I also thought he was ridiculously funny."

“My main role was a tank, but when I first came onto the server I had been jokingly trying out healer,” Steven said. “Hilary then slotted me as a healer on the ramparts in my first War with her Company. I was bottom of the leaderboard, for sure. But I chucked out beacons and shot the cannons! I made sure she knew I was a tank for the next one.”



“Steven is a very effective shot caller for Wars, always leading with a smile and a joke,“ Hilary said. I remember planning a War for my Company with his help pretty early on. It actually secured the territory for us. I’ll never forget the classic line he’d use before each War started, ‘After all, we’ve never lost a War.‘ While that wasn’t always true, there was a real comfort in knowing he was leading the charge.”

“While we were playing the game, we spent a lot of time working together and dealing with various issues in our respective Companies,“ Hilary said. ”This led to us often spending a lot of time discussing our thoughts and concerns which paved the way for us to forge a really strong friendship that branched out from just talking about New World into our real everyday lives. He became my best friend - and I don't know a better place from which to build a healthy and happy relationship from!“



“Working together to help keep the server healthy and balanced meant that we spent a lot of time together which was when I started to see her as much more than just another person I was playing with,” Steven said.

“I think the most romantic thing Steven has ever done in New World was running Dynasty Mutators with me over and over and over again while I grinded to get the Glowing Crystal Life Staff,” Hilary said. “It took forever to get it, but he was there with a supportive attitude the whole time. Steven didn’t tell me he’d gotten multiple by the time I got my first until after mine dropped - true love!”



"I would do it again in a heartbeat if you needed me to," Steven said. "But please don't make me do that again (laughs)."

“Initially, we were governors of our own Companies and we always had that separation,“ Hilary said. ”When we play now, we work together through everything, including leading Companies together. It is really nice to know that we have each other to bounce ideas off of and make decisions with, even when we don't entirely agree.“

"We definitely make a better company together than we ever did apart," Steven said.

“I met Steven because I just said hi,” Hilary said. “People are usually really receptive when you come from a place of kindness. I always make it a point to say hi in every piece of content I do with other Adventurers. You never know who you are going to meet or what they might mean to you a year down the line!”



“People are playing New World to have fun, so don’t be afraid to speak up in chat,” Steven said. “My original Company was formed by just sending messages and invites to anyone I saw without a Company. The worst someone can do is ignore you and move on, but at best it might lead to something great.”

Follow ItsHilaryMason on Twitter and Twitch for more fun New World experiences. Thanks for your support! We’ll see you in the Aeternum chat.

1. Added crowd sound effects to all levels.
   
2. Rebalanced A.I. for Granite God Mesa.
   
3. Rebalanced A.I. for Arch Angel.
   
4. Fixed rock podium position for Vehicle Selection Screen P1 and P2.
   
5. Small lighting fix to the final turn of Guttural Crack and the Honeypot location.
   
6. Covered up fence edge that was causing vehicles to get stuck on Arch Angel.
   
7. Minor environment design fixes to Granite God Mesa and new Lighting bake.
   
8. Granite God Mesa brightness rebalanced.
   
9. Covered 2 holes where vehicles could fall through on Sidewinder Spin.
   
10. Made Italian Growliano slightly more stable.

Slight story enhancement